All he wanted was Adventure
by MarisolM
Summary: An intricate look at Delbert Doppler, how he meets the Hawkins family, and his life's unexpected turn after the Treasure Planet expedition.
1. the Doppler Collection

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Disney characters, nor the original story pitch from R.L. Stevenson. This story is mostly centered around Delbert's background life and thoughts, but don't worry, you'll see plenty other familiar characters along the way! P**

"Oh! Sorry... I seemed - to - have - gone overboard... with the sale... Sorry!"

The lanky dog creature stepped aside in a zigzag manner from the customers, as he left Sir Hyde's Bookshoppe with two sloppy towers of books balanced on his arms. The books were blocking his view ahead as he descended down some stairs, and really hoped he wouldn't crash into anyone, or for that matter, trip over a step and fall sheepishly with a rain of books.

"For God's sake, Delbert... there'd better be a book about Corinthian Architecture in there, because that's all I needed." A female, plump dog creature grunted amusingly at the other end of the street, waiting for him outside the Painter's Pallette art supply store. She carried a slightly worn portfolio in one arm, and crossed her arms in disbelief as her cousin tried not to make a fool of himself.

"Don't worry, Daisy. I have it, and it's brilliant!" He shouted out to her in excitement as he crossed the street carefully with the book tower not failing him.

"Listen, I know we shouldn't say terrible things to each other, but really... you're the worst person to shop with, you know that?" Daisy laughed as she lingered on the corner of the street to help Delbert with some of the heavy books he had managed to carry on his stick-figured frame. She grunted by the weight. "How many books on Electromagnetic Plasma can you find in one place?"

"Just this one," he pointed it out with his nose, as they began to walk to the carriage. "But oh... the rest that I found... such a goldmine! An original folio of William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'..."

"Who?"

Delbert rolled his eyes. "An ancient playwright of the Renaissance, Daisy. Ah, the Renaissance! My father would read me his work from our Collection when I was little, to try to get me to sleep, but I would never shut an eyelid with Shakespeare--"

"Oh nevermind... what's this one about?" Daisy noted a small book that was too thin to have its title written on the spine, almost hidden under a thick untitled book by some man named Austen. "It looks like a children's book."

"I think it is, actually. It's a virtual storybook I found in the rummage pile, called Treasure Planet. I liked the artistic quality to it, so I thought you might appreciate it."

Daisy smiled. "Haha, yes... the story sounds familiar to me... doesn't it involve a certain Captain Flint and his fleet of pirates?"

"I don't know; I didn't get that far into it, really. Too childish for my taste."

"Well that's saying a lot." Daisy smiled and stuck her tongue out at her cousin, and Delbert scoffed as if he had been insulted, and spontaneously tried to chase her down the end of the sidewalk towards the other street, balancing the books on their arms like two masters.

Delbert Doppler was a young man of few words, he would admit, but that wasn't to say his knowledge was not elaborate, explicit and very, very articulate. As the most renowned astrophysics student in Montressor, he'd happily spend an hour or two explaining the phenomenon of Arachni Borealis, with each piece of plasma extending itself out to make a delicate spider's web image in the sky for approximately four minutes before disintegration. The problem was that when he spoke about his hobbies or critical things, specifically, he would become so worked up, and it would be like an exploding thesaurus of emotional matter to the person listening to him. Most of the time, Daisy would be the victim to this. He didn't know what exactly it was, but his personal life didn't seem to connect well with other people, as if there were a huge barrier between what he studied, and what he felt.

He grew up reading about adventure, just as any other boy would, and perhaps he was the lucky one, because he had the privilege of living inside the most exceptional collection of literature in the Inglaterr Galaxy. The Doppler Manor, his home, had received amounts of acclaim from people by the enormous effort that generations of one family had placed into their library. Delbert even remembered how once, as a boy, his house had become practically a museum in the planet Montressor with the sheer interest that people gained from the books.

It came to be known as the Doppler Collection; books capturing the minds of great visionaries, thinkers, artists from long ago... long before Inglaterr had even been colonized. The titles were like a piece of intricate ancient history, and few scholars faintly recalled learning about such names as Plato, Da Vinci and Herodotus - the so-called "father of history" of a certain time. Each book was brought in its own unique way, stumbled upon by an ancestor at market or an old bookshop, where they would not sell for much. They would read the complex Shakespearean sonnets about love, the fantastical epics of knights from Camelot, to the fascinating ideas of a perfect society called Utopia... and they would want to go back there. The Dopplers never knew exactly how this obsession for old books got started within the family, but nevertheless, they kept it going... and over time, it became an impressive library of historical thought. It's easy to say that the Dopplers found quite a profit from the museum admissions, and retained their name in high class society as the people who loved history.

You would say it was inevitable, how young Delbert fell into this love for old books, sneaking down into the library as a child at late hours to read about pirates and dragon-slayers and their well-guarded treasures. You would probably think it common sense that he would want to study these things as a profession, researching into the metaphorical realms of these stories to compare them to his modern-day culture. Many scholars had already done so, after all. However, although it seemed that those classic arts and traditions were maintained throughout Inglaterr, the history behind them seemed to have been forgotten, all for the sake of modernization.

"Delbert, you can't place all of your mind and energy into what's already happened." He remembers his teachers saying. "You have to look ahead, and see what you can do to help your current society."

And so he did, burying his nose into the sciences and the arts of astronomy and physical elements, in that same compassion he always carried with learning. While his only cousin dove into the artistic gifts she was born with (to hopefully become an influence to Montressor's design), Delbert Doppler read into the most unseen parts of the Inglaterr Galaxy. He tried to make sense of the strange phenomena that would be scanned by his own personal observatory at the Doppler Manor, and make sure they wouldn't be of any threat in the forthcoming future. But he never outgrew his childhood ambition of adventure, and even now, as a young doctoral candidate at the University of Montressor, he still longed for that chance to go on an adventure of a lifetime...

"Whoa! Delbert... _stop_!" Daisy had frozen mid-run as she approached the corner the street, catching the figures of two people walking by perpendicularly from the adjacent street. She was lucky enough to not crash into them, but Delbert, unfortunately, couldn't see nor hear her.

"AAAHHHH!!!!" An instant domino effect, Delbert ran into his cousin, and the tower of books came tumbling onto the young couple without warning.

The young man's hat caught the Austen book and caved it in like a canoe, with his arms catching a few books from the air like a basket. The woman was lucky enough to have stepped back slightly just before the avalanche of books came. The two of them seemed to have been in the middle of a stroll in the marketplace, when this crash suddenly cut their sweet conversation short. Daisy was left in a slight fetal position under a pile of old books, and Delbert saw the surprised-yet-unimpressed look on the man's face.

Carriages continued to pass by the streets, and customers walked around the large pile of books laid on the ground, looking with sincere interest, and then continuing on foot.

"Oh – oh my goodness – I'm extremely sorry about that, sir. Really I--" Delbert got up immediately to try and get the book from the man's damaged hat, but the man swiftly handed the book over to Delbert's arm in one unhappy gesture. Delbert suddenly felt like he'd lost his voice. The man's face looked a bit overworked and exhausted, yet his rough jawline and thick mustache would have made anyone stand up straighter than usual. Daisy picked herself up from the ground and attempted to apologize herself, but the man just handed the books he'd caught over to her, and turned to acknowledge the young woman he was with.

"You alright, Sarah?" The man went and gave her a hand.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks. Boy, that was close." The young woman named Sarah carefully stepped back to the sidewalk, and looked over to Delbert and Daisy with a grin that said no harm done. "Are you both okay? Here, let me help..."

Delbert and Daisy felt awful, seeing how this woman was nearly bombarded by heavy books, and now she was insisting to pick them up along with them. Sarah's long braided hair swang over her shoulder as she bent down to start helping them out, the roundness of her cheeks releasing a sense of warmth as she smiled.

"_No_ no no, you don't have to do that..." Daisy's voice trailed off, noticing how this young woman's belly was protruding a little bit outwards. Her eyes froze. Sarah was pregnant, and Daisy and Delbert felt even worse about that. The damage that could've been done was unimaginable.

"Really, you don't... we're sorry." Daisy attempted once more.

"Oh nonsense, I'm alright. Lucky for us, I jumped back right before it happened, eh?" Sarah handed a book over to Delbert and they all continued to pick up the books. The man at her side eventually knelt down to help as well. "What're your names, anyway?"

"I'm Delbert Doppler, madam. And this is Daisy Egburt, my cousin." Delbert swallowed the nervousness out of him, Daisy gave a small nod of support for him.

"Well I'm pleased to meet you both." Sarah shook each of their hands, then glanced over at the man, who looked indifferent about the formality. "This is my husband, Jonathan Hawkins. And I'm Sarah Benbow."

Jonathan blinked.

"_Hawkins!_ Sarah Hawkins." Sarah corrected herself meekly, and chuckled, looking at the ground with embarrassment. "I can't believe it. We've been married for almost a year, and I'm still not used to this new name."

Delbert laughed, more to save Sarah from blushing like a tomatoe. "Oh it happens; my mother always insisted in being called by her maiden name in formal occasions. She just preferred it that way... though I partly feel it's because she had the memory of a goldfishae."

Daisy shook her head with annoyance, but decided to let that conversation end lightly, seeing her cousin talk confidently about things other than books. When the four of them had finished piling up all those books on each other's arms (Sarah's pile being less heavy) the mood seemed to become awkward, and Jonathan did not seem to change his facial expression at all. Delbert felt nervous and cautious at the same time, wanting to say something, but feeling as if the man would throw a book at him at any moment.

"Look, if it isn't too far, we can take these over to your carriage, to spare the weight on your arms." Sarah suggested to Daisy lightheartedly, and turned to the man. "Jonathan, you don't mind, do you?"

With a sigh, the man shook his head, but it was clear to Delbert that Jonathan was not looking forward to this walk with books at all. Keeping a close caution to traffic, the four of them headed towards Delbert's carriage, Daisy leading in front with Sarah. The women seemed to have hit it off quite easily, talking about Sarah's baby, and the new marriage and recent move, etc. For the men, it could not have been more uncomfortable to walk side by side, not having much to say.

"Eh...you're Homcanids, aren't you?" The man asked curiously to Delbert, trying to break that silent barrier with little effort.

"Um, well, yes. Yes we are..." Delbert would've scratched his head, had his hands not been occupied with the books. He didn't know if this man was being more curious or judgemental, but nevertheless he managed to answer him just as oddly. "...our family has lived in Planet Montressor for centuries."

Now feeling like he classified himself as the dull, awkward Homcanid, Delbert didn't know what else he could say, and was about to ask Jonathan if he was indeed Human, but Daisy seemed to have sensed the tension brewing, and she cut in.

"So, are you both new to Montressor?" She asked Jonathan and Sarah, with a hint more of optimism.

"Yes, yes we actually just sailed in a few days ago, from the Columnia Galaxy, on the far west solar region." Jonathan seemed to have found a bit more dignity in his voice, as the four were approaching Delbert's fine cherrywood carriage, but he kept carrying on with the conversation. "I was a merchant of antiques there, and I'm trying to expand my trade over here in Inglaterr and network with other businesses. I don't hope to do much of it yet, with the baby and all, but I'll be traveling a lot, finding antique furniture and metallic wear in good condition. I might extend into more exotic goods as well, who knows? Sarah... well..."

Jonathan passed on the rest of that conversation over to his wide, and his voice returned to its usual tone.

"...I'll be managing my own Inn, hopefully. It's something I'd been saving up for, for a long time, even before I met this guy," She turned her head towards Jonathan with a lovable acknowledgement, as she handed Delbert the books to load on the carriage. "We're actually on our way to look into some foriegn equity loans, and find the best designer and building contractor for it. All the nitty-gritty stuff, you know?"

"Oh, you're in luck! You've already befriended one of the best young architects in the whole planet of Montressor." Daisy laughed, amusing herself as she loaded her books on the trunk of the carriage. "Let me know when you'd like to start and I'll be more than happy to help you out with the project. Old-style cottages are my specialty at the moment."

Sarah's eyes beamed open with more hopefulness. "Would you? That's really sweet... you see, it's always been my dream to open an Inn, and let explorers and travelers stay... hearing their stories of danger and excitement. It thrills me."

"Sounds like the perfect environment to raise a family." Delbert commented, feeling a sense of childhood coming back to him as he climbed onto the driver's seat. The sluugifant creature had waken up from a nap and was immediately eager to take off in the carriage, but Delbert took hand of the riding straps for control. "Well, please know that you're always welcome at the Doppler Manor. I make a dangerous cup of tea!"

"That's not a lie." Daisy mumbled as she climbed up to sit next to her cousin, and Delbert elbowed her in annoyance. After the pairs respectively waved their goodbyes, Sarah placed a hand on her belly for comfort and turned around with her husband to continue their strolling. Daisy suddenly remembered the storybook Delbert had bought for her at the shop, and quickly had an idea.

"Wait, Sarah!" The woman turned around at the call of her name, and Daisy jumped off the carriage to pick up the Treasure Planet storybook from the pile. She then proceeded to catch up to Sarah and her husband. "It's for the baby. Consider it as a welcoming present from me and Delbert."

"Aw, thanks, Daisy." The two women hugged one last time, and Jonathan gestured to Sarah keep going before the day got late. "We promise we'll keep in touch!"

And at that, Delbert signaled the sluugifant to take off, and the cousins left the marketplace in the carriage, feeling slightly better about their ultimate accident involving books. As Delbert led the carriage to drop off Daisy at her small European-style flat near the Montressor's market square, his mind seemed to go back to that list of books he had found at the store. The Doppler Collection will be receiving wonderful additions.

With this newly found friendship he and Daisy had made with the humans, things seemed to be taking a better turn for Delbert's life. Perhaps he just needed a new crowd of people to talk to, to get his mind out of the strange world of astrophysics for a while, and just hear about stories of travel and excitement. Part of him just wished he'd carried more of that Jonathan fellow's ambition with navigation, but goodness knows, Delbert was content with the ambition he had for knowledge... and the sense of humor that came along with it.


	2. the potential Benbow Inn

"Oh my goodness. Daisy... I love it!"

Delbert heard Sarah's cry of excitement from the other corner of the Doppler Manor's vast living room, as he sat by himself at an armchair trying to study for his midterm examination on Gamma-Ray particles. He grinned at the fact that Daisy had made quite an impression with her drawings and sketches for the potential Benbow Inn, and he was glad that Sarah (and perhaps Jonathan) would be delighted in using her work for the design.

It had been over four months since they had met the young Hawkins couple, and for one thing, Daisy and Sarah had become quite close friends. His plump, chatterbox of a cousin would bring her up in conversations now and then, whenever she and Delbert had their mid-day lunches at the Manor. Jonathan was more of a shadow of detail in the stories, and that did not surprise him; that man did not take any particular effort in making himself known - at least through his manners. His wife Sarah, was a treasure to talk about, on the other hand... and Daisy seemed to have filtered some of that cheerfulness into her since that first meet in the marketplace. Sarah was fully pregnant by this time... and her belly was swollen out like a watermellon, yet she still carried herself in a graceful way. She and Delbert had taken the liberty of showing them out into the iconic areas of Montressor, a planet that mainly consisted itself of canyon and wasteland... but a rare amount of beauty that only locals would know about. For one thing, on the clearest nights, the canyons would be a perfect open theatre for the dark skies to open up their bright constellation of stars and eerie particles to those who gazed at them. Delbert found them a blessing to observe, personally. Unexplainable beauty.

Daisy seemed happy spending quality time with her new friend, as he could tell, but somehow he also felt that Daisy had been working too much lately... to the point where he spotted little gray hairs appearing on her radiant brown mane, as a young woman still in her late twenties. She looked tired all the time. This project she had for the Hawkins was one of dozens of engagements she had made for herself, along with keeping in touch with friends... and Delbert was worried that she'd work herself to exhaustion. Daisy was very giving... it's just how she was... and Delbert was not about to say anything to discomfort her. At least not at that moment.

"Do you really?" Daisy wondered out loud, always feeling slightly imperfect about her own work. She rubbed one side temple of her head, as if thinking. "I mean, the alignment of the windows could be a little less drastic, but it might enable a wonderful use of artificial light for the dining hall. And the interior volume can bring the illusion that the place is small and cozy - like a cottage - rather than having it look like an overwhelming amount of space..."

Delbert couldn't make heads-or-tails about this artistic language his cousin seemed to be spilling to young Sarah and Jonathan, but nevertheless he enjoyed listening in on her theoretical, creative side that he always tried to understand. It reminded him back when he'd teased her with new _flatula_ words he had learned in school, Daisy trying to cover her ears by the noise and the grotesqueness of it.

"Haha, I see what you're saying." Sarah analyzed the picture a little more. "I really_ really_ appreciate this illusion of space for the dining hall... but I'm not sure I like this idea of just _one_ staircase going up to the second floor. I don't want to make the coziness of the place become claustrophobic... maybe we need a second staircase somewhere?"

Daisy rummaged through a few more of her sketches in her portfolio and found her concept of the Benbow Inn's main entrance. "Ah, here we go! You see this empty space that's all along the left wall? Well... we could easily make that into a staircase and add a few extra rooms to align with the upstairs hallway."

The Homcanid began to add a little bit of detail with her pencil into the concept drawing. to make a better example of what the second staircase would look like. Although she paused and closed her eyes for comfort a couple of times, she still managed to do this in a matter of seconds, and Sarah was amazed by the quick-minded sense of work. As Daisy finished her sketch, the young woman looked it over from her side of the table, rubbing her pregnant belly involuntarily and speculating.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, plus it will encourage more people to stay and extend the business a little. All the expenses might be reimbursed sooner." Sarah looked over at Jonathan as he sat across from her in the round table. "Honey, what do you think?"

"It's fine," he murmured, as he continued to write in his account books from last weekend's shipping to planet Portopels, smiling over to his wife to insure her that he was listening. "But until we're off the waiting list for that loan from the Human Equity bank, there isn't going to be any Inn, Sarah. I know it's exciting to think about, but good money is getting hard to come by these days. We have to be careful about our budgets for at least the next few months. Our little apartment is costing us a _fortune_ with maintenance."

Sarah was speechless, and didn't know whether she was more upset or saddened by those facts. She loved Jonathan, and she knew him and how uptight he was on keeping money to run his merchant ship; it was something they'd both agreed on maintaining as a priority when they got married and left Columnia...to keep the trade business going full speed. It was the most potential business of the time, after all. With a marriage, an apartment, and a little boy along the way... Sarah felt she was sinking into more and more debt. At this rate, she sadly calculated that the Benbow Inn would not be under construction for at least another four years... meaning four years living in a small, run-down apartment.

Jonathan looked up from his account books, finally, and asked "How much are we even paying her to draw those sketches, anyway?"

Daisy frowned to the man at that comment, and in the corner of her eye, she could tell that Sarah was feeling exactly the same way... except more defeated.

"Nothing, sir." Daisy responded. "Absolutely nothing."

The man turned over to Daisy as she spoke, and narrowed his eyes a little, almost as if that acknowledgment were enough to be a 'thank you.'

"I'm just trying to support Sarah's business idea as one friend to another," Daisy continued to meet Jonathan's eyes, speaking in that assertive manner that leveled them both.

"Well thank you, but there will be none of that, at least until we get that loan."

"Jonathan--" Sarah had wanted to say more, but her husband seemed to have called the conversation quits, as he got himself off the chair and picked up his papers.

"Sarah, I've got to go. I have an appointment with that client in Gensdrury in less than an hour, and since you didn't cook supper, I'll have to nourish myself, won't I." Jonathan set his papers into a neat pile and put them into his messenger case, and looked at his wife's blank expression. Gently, he placed a hand over her firm one on the table and said "Your friends can take you home, I presume. I'll see you this evening, darling, okay?"

And with that, Jonathan grabbed his coat and hat, nodded a farewell to Delbert in the other corner, and left the Doppler Manor in his merchant cargo ship. The doctor could not begin to tame down the disgust he had for that man, with that undermining look Jonathan had tossed over at him. Delbert quickly lost interest in reading about active galactic nuclei, and closed his textbook to join Daisy and Sarah's conversation.

"I'm sorry to sound skeptical, Sarah, but... what did you _see _in that man?" He ears made a flap of sarcasm, walking over to the young women in the round table.

"Look, you two... I'm sorry. He's not usually like this..." Sarah noticed Daisy's face feeling just as much insulted by the man's presence as Delbert was. "He's just... stressed over the move, and the job... everything." Sarah began to rub her cheek in comfort. "The moment we get settled here for good, he'll start to lighten up a little bit."

"That's no excuse for him to treat you like that, Sarah." Daisy shook her head, believing that her friend was in love, but just as much in denial. She lifted one of her hands up to her forehead and rubbed her temples again, closing her eyes for a second. "Are you sure he's being supportive of this idea at _all_?"

"Jonathan's a visionary, but he's also a realist, and a good guy. He's always been a caring person to me, and I know he'll be a great father..." Sarah gazed downwards to her belly, caressing the fabric of her dress as if she could feel the life that was existing inside of her. She smiled like any mom-to-be would smile, serenely, and Delbert could only sigh and exchange odd glances with Daisy.

Only Daisy did not return that glance. Her eyes were scrunched up shut, as if she were experiencing a terrible migraine in her head. Delbert blinked through his spectacles.

"Daisy... Daisy, are you alright?" He asked. Sarah looked over to her direction as well.

"W-what?" the woman opened her eyes and saw Delbert's concerned face. "Oh, yeah... I'm fine. Just a little lack of sleep, I guess." Daisy started to get up from her chair, but staggered like she'd had a dizzy spell. Delbert was immediately moving around the table to assist her.

"Dang it, Delbert, I said I was fine!" She snapped, and started gathering up her drawings neatly to place them into her leather portfolio, not looking at either of them in the eye. "I have to go meet up with my friend, Alastor. I'm supposed to see him tonight about the art convention in March..."

"Daisy, what's wrong? Tell us what's wrong." Sarah slouched over the table closer to Daisy's form to get her attention.

"It's nothing." Daisy said under her breath, firmly closing her portfolio in a fast pace. Her cousin frowned with confusion; he had never seen Daisy act so stubborn before. "I'll write to you, Sarah, okay? I promise, we'll talk about this more later..."

She was preparing to head for the door, when Delbert took the initiative to block her way as a way of insisting she talk more. He looked at her eyes, unsure about the reason why she refused to look back at him, whether it was stress, exhaustion, or... She would always find a way to level with him. Now, she wasn't even attempting it.

"Delbert, I have to go... get out of my _way_..." Daisy's forceful words faded slowly like a whisper, as she looked over her cousin's shoulder towards the door, almost in a trance.

The door was the last thing she saw, before she stepped forward and collapsed onto Delbert's arms, her portfolio falling to the ground next to him. Sarah bolted up from her chair then.

"Daisy... _Daisy_..." the young man lost his voice as he held his cousin's limp body and shook her, all the weight of her making him bend half-way to the floor.

Time had seemed to slow down for him after that, laying Daisy's body flatly on the ground, and panicking on the inside as to what had gone wrong inside of her. Sarah rushed over to Daisy's form and placed an ear over her chest. Yes, she had a heartbeat. She was alive.

"Delbert, I'm going to contact the hospital, alright? Just stay here." Sarah moved and ran slowly towards the kitchen of the manor, clutching her belly. Delbert did not move, but his face had turned pale as he kept his eyes on his cousin.

He had never felt so helpless in his life.


	3. the moons of Lysmanther

She was dying.

Delbert Doppler sat in the waiting area for what seemed days, his hands burying his face as he waited to hear about a diagnosis. Clearly, the doctors must have made a mistake, he thought to himself. His voice began to make a light whimpering sound, like that of an injured dog, as he imagined his cousin's rigorous treatment procedure a few hallways down from him. He heard a familiar woman's voice approach him, and he looked up from his spectacles and saw that Sarah had arrived, just as she'd promised.

Daisy was sent to the Neurology & Mental Health wing of the hospital, where visiting hours were few and limited, but Delbert didn't care. Ever since they took her in, medical researchers would come and discuss with him their theories about work exhaustion that placed great fragility on Daisy's brain, while other doctors believed it was a rare illness that ran through the homcanid species, which Delbert instantly believed falsely. The medical assistants would simply insist that the young man go home to get a bit of rest himself.

She had welcomed Sarah and Delbert into her cell after the fourth day in the hospital. Delbert shuddered at the visual treatment he saw. Her radiant hair was gone, and a handful of wired electrodes had been attached to her scalp, sending out digital brain waves to a pair of computer screens, one on each side of her. It was a metallic cell that she was placed in, where the sterling silver doors and reflective corners of the room made the ordinary hospital rooms seem like a cozy Bed & Breakfast. The flowers Sarah brought placed a hint of color into the room, giving the place the warmth it needed.

He didn't understand how Daisy's voice remained calm as she talked to Sarah, telling her about the electrode mechanism, and how they planned to record her brain activity until the very end of her rope. Sarah would pause, observing the screens as it made blots of blue and green like a technological language, but she didn't know whether to smile or just sigh with the tears that formed in her eyes. All Sarah could think about was how lucky she was to have made a good friend in Montressor, perhaps at a time she needed one the most. The only thing she could think of giving Daisy in return was a smile of pure bliss, telling her that she'd be visiting her quite often before the baby arrived.

What Delbert couldn't understand most of all was why Daisy chose_ at will_ to stay in this place, rather than be treated at home. He could tell she enjoyed their company, but at moments, she would find it difficult to look Delbert in the eye.

It seemed as if a long time ago, she had betrayed him. Here she was dying, and she wasn't shedding a single tear.

Delbert only recalled two occasions where he'd seen his cousin cry. He vaguely remembered the second one... when she had received a letter of rejection from the Conservatory for Industrial Arts... because it was a light cry, as she was seventeen-- old enough to understand that her dreams could not be shattered over a piece of paper. She was smart like that, and she would always provide that challenge for Delbert to stand up for himself when circumstances came.

The first occasion still ran through Delbert's mind now and then, due to the loss he had experienced that same October evening. He remembered the vast hallways in the Doppler Manor, him and Daisy running barefoot in their pajamas on the long golden-lined carpets, dashing away from the housekeeper as she chased them and taunted them about "accidentally" climbing up onto one of the chandeliers to be a certain Peter Pan and Captain Hook, and breaking one of the lightbulbs in the process. He could still hear the great doorbell of the Manor boom into a ringing melody at the far distance, causing the housekeeper to halt and look curiously behind her. The housekeeper had stopped right into an adjacent opening of light coming from the living room, and Delbert and Daisy could see her figure faint into darkness as she left the other way for the door...

"_Do you think it's our parents? They're back early!" Delbert whispered excitedly, as the two of them turned a corner and popped their heads out into the light to see the housekeeper head towards the entrance door. Both his parents, and his aunt and uncle had taken a winter expedition to the exotic moons of Lysmanther on the east corners of Crescentia, for a scientific investigation of some kind. He had never been there, but Daisy had, and she loved telling him about the silver gamma dust she felt on her skin like rain, back when her parents took her there on a brief vacation. Delbert wanted to go there someday, but that moment was filled with eagerness to hug his mother again, and see which book his father had brought him from the Lysmanther moons._

"_No, idiot, they would've pulled the carriage in, and used the _side_ door." Daisy whispered back to him, pushing his head a closer to the bottom of the doorway, to see better._

_The housekeeper had opened the grand entrance door into the late Etherium nightfall, and the two children noticed two men in police uniform enter the Manor. They were not the local police division - usually those were the Robotic Watchmen - and Daisy noticed that one of them must have been a detective... as he revealed a copper badge to the housekeeper that sparkled against the lamp light..._

"Sarah, dear, would you mind if Delbert and I spoke a little bit in private?" The female homcanid adjusted herself more comfortably on the bed, throwing a small sad glance at her cousin who'd refused to say anything to her.

"No problem, I think I should sit down anyway... Rest well, hon." Sarah caressed her belly humbly then, and approached her friend to kiss her forehead, before escorting herself out into the waiting room. Delbert watched Sarah leave through the small window on the door, and immediately turned back to his cousin with rare frown.

He didn't know what to say, as usual, and yet with the way her expression was aimed to him, he couldn't the find the slightest force to be angry at her.

"I'm sorry, Delbert," her voice echoed into her cousin's floppy ears.

The homcanid stared at his cousin, with all the work and wires that were being put onto her, that it made things more discomforting to say. He saw the computer screens of digital graphic imagery full of life, and he looked over at his cousin's arm attached with a transfusion needle... and the only source of nourishment that was keeping his cousin alive. He finally found the courage to say something, and his stomach hurt with the honesty.

"They're not helping you." His face was still stern, but from behind his spectacles, he was already in tears. "They've made you into a living experiment, Daisy."

"I wanted them to."

Delbert flinched with disbelief. "_Wh--_Why didn't you just-- "

"Because there was nothing else they _could_ do, Delbert. Ever since they told me our parents died that night, I knew they couldn't help me..."

_The one who did not show a badge instead revealed a fairly large manila envelope to the housekeeper, drawing out two sepia photographs for her to see. As she looked at them, Daisy and Delbert noticed her hands slowly going up to her mouth, and when one of the men spoke to her again, her face changed into an creme color. She looked down to the entrance floor, her hands covering the majority of her face now, and the children couldn't examine her expressions anymore._

_Daisy knew something was very wrong, and Delbert could not see past the odd color of his housekeeper's face, and why she looked so upset. His worst fear was that the police were coming to arrest him over the damage he made in the chandelier, but that seemed to fade more after each second. Besides, he thought, that big lamp was already getting rusty through age._

"_What could they be telling her?" Daisy wondered out loud, but softly. "Delbert, wait here."_

_And at that, Daisy marched in her striped pajamas out of the dim corridor and into the entrance hall, with Delbert watching from the shadows. It wasn't long before the entrance lamp light acknowledged her presence, and the three grown-ups turned over to her direction. Daisy stood next to the housekeeper, and while the woman carefully placed an arm around the girl for comfort, the men pressed her into an explanation that Delbert couldn't even begin to understand from the distance. They did not show her the photographs._

_Daisy's expressions seemed to weaken as the men spoke to her, and Delbert became utterly frightened to see his cousin's face grew stiff and lifeless as the seconds went on. She slowly stepped backwards, out of the arms of the housekeeper, as if her head was becoming heavier and heavier and Delbert thought she was stepping back to keep it from falling to her shoulders. The young teenager covered her mouth in the same way the housekeeper had done, but in that inevitable gesture of sickness, while her feet kept moving her to the grand staircase..._

Delbert took off his spectacles and tried to look through Daisy's deformed feeling of sadness and assertiveness. She knew she did not have much time left, and here she was, trying to explain to him something she had already explained to him years ago. They had become orphans that same night, through the same circumstances. Or so he believed.

"What're you talking about?" Delbert begain to pace back and forth slowly around the small cell, trying to gather his thoughts. "Daisy, our parents were killed by the Lysmanther Gamma Ray storm, but what does that have do with--"

"_Your _parents were killed by the storm, Delbert, but my parents... died."

"It was the same storm!"

"Yes, Delbert, but please... listen to me. My parents accumulated Lysmanther radiation in their bodies, don't you understand?"

The young man kept pacing slowly, his arms crossed with frustration as he looked back to his cousin's stern face. She continued to speak.

"They'd visited those moons countless times, and_ that's_ what killed them. The storm... it gave them an overdose... of that radiation - which proved fatal - and the police said to me they'd just started investigating how that radiation was dangerous. Delbert, one single exposure to that dust could mark a person with lifelong symptoms..."

_Although the distance made it improbable, Delbert's eyes captured the tears streaming in his cousin's face from the lamp light, as she struggled to climb the staircase. The housekeeper extended a caring hand for her, but Daisy kept running, not looking at any of their faces and almost tripping over the last stair before reaching the top. Diasy dashed towards her guestroom. _

_Urgently, Delbert flew into the dark corridor again, with his little feet passing through the labyrinth of dim light, and found the back stairway towards the bedroom chamber. He wanted to see his cousin again, and ask her what those two men had said, but he hesitated. As he approached the closed door of her room, the brass doorknob seemed to sneer at him like a warning sign. In the darkness, and through the thick cherry wood door, Delbert heard his cousin cry for the first time._

_The sound confused him, because it came like a sad lullaby, with a canine whimpering sound that made it like she was injured sadly underwater. With his tiny heart in determination, he walked an inch away from the cold door, and knocked quietly. "Daisy?" he whispered. The crying sniffled into a brief pause, and after what seemed a few seconds staring at the door, the brass doorknob tilted downwards by itself, and it became ajar..._

"But..." Delbert gathered his thoughts meekly, as his eyes became glazed with forming tears. "Daisy, but you... it was only _one_ trip that you took to the Lysmanther; that couldn't have been enough to--"

"Yes Delbert, that's what I thought too, and I told the investigators that... but the truth of the matter is... even though I was only three at the time, my parents and I were marked with that radiation and nobody knew how dangerous it was then. I was there once... which is why I was able to live this long... but the radiation was still there, and little by little, it would extend itself to my brain until I could no longer fight it. That's why the investigators were so keen on seeing my conditions recorded for medical purpose. I told you about our parents' deaths, Delbert, but I didn't want to tell you that... the radiation would someday finish me off, too..."

"No." A reluctant tear rolled down Delbert's angry face. He had wanted to believe that the doctors knew what was wrong with her, and that a cure was still possible. That idea was slowly disappearing from his mind, and he was fighting, struggling on the inside to keep it.

"...because I didn't want you to worry. You were so young, and we were just playmates..."

_The young teenaged girl's face was splotched with old tears and new ones that streamed down her face, her snout sniffling between them as she looked at her little cousin's worrisome eyes in the dim light. She was kneeled into a sitting position on the floor, with a rug keeping her legs warm as she placed her back against the bedpost. With a small pause, she couldn't help but sigh as she looked at the little boy who'd crept in from the door, his innocence giving her a hint of determination to speak, as she always did. She sniffled, and extended a hand for Delbert to come into the room without any more hesitation. When he grabbed her hand, the boy rushed in and hugged his cousin tightly._

"_Delbert... there... in Lysmanther, there was a terrible storm of Gamma Rays. Do you know what that is?"_

_The little boy shook his head as he kept hugging his cousin._

"_Well... some big, strong waves... of light formed on the moons of Lysmanther, and they... destroyed... the ship that our parents were sailing on."_

"_Destroyed it?"_

"_Mmm-hmm." Daisy sniffled again._

"_But... then, how're they coming back home?" Delbert moved his head slightly so he could see her face, and he saw Daisy's eyes glaze with new tears._

"_Oh, Delbert... they're..." the girl's words began to shiver out of her mouth, unsure if it was the cold or the mere difficulty of telling the little boy the inevitable. "...they're not coming back, sweety."_

_Slowly, looking out into dark nothingness, the small homcanid's mouth went agape as he took in those words, half of his mind believing that Daisy was lying to him. But he hugged her, clutching the fabric of his cousin's pajamas, as if wanting to force that idea away with her warmth. Daisy returned the hug, the unseen photographs of her parents still raw to her young mind. She found it difficult picturing her life now without them..._

"Stop it, Daisy," the young man couldn't take any more, as his memories kept haunting his mind with that revelation that she had carried the illness for many years.

"Delbert, listen to me; I didn't tell you, because I _knew _you would try and find a way to cure the radiation out of me... give up your dreams of adventure, astronomy, and just spend years researching into those dangerous Lysmanther rays _yourself _if you had to."

"Daisy--" through his watery eyes, he knew his cousin was right, but he couldn't bare to listen to that truth out loud.

"I didn't want you to give up your life trying to save me. There is no cure, Delbert, and even if they'd found one, it would've been too late for me. So I just stayed with it and kept records of my symptoms, and I tried to move on with my life... my art... everything."

"_I'm never gonna leave Montressor, Daisy." The little boy clutched his cousin's pajamas tighter, almost with rage that an adventure had killed their only family. "I don't wanna go anywhere."_

_Daisy sighed between her sniffles, feeling her cousin's tears permeate through the fabric on her arm. She shook him a little to get his hopes up, despite her sad tone of voice. "Hey, kiddo, promise me one thing, okay?"_

"_Hmm?" Delbert let go of one clutch to wipe some tears out of his eyes, as he looked at Daisy._

"_I want you to promise me, that... someday... you'll go on an adventure, just like Peter Pan... with pirates, and treasure, and you'll see the most beautiful phenomena of the entire Etherium."_

_Those descriptions made the young boy grow a smile into his face, almost involuntarily with excitement. His tears remained, but his dimples showed how his desire for adventure was still hibernating somewhere in his thoughts. They were not completely lost, and Daisy felt better about that. As they continued to warm each other from the darkness, Delbert's voice came in again._

"_You'll come with me, won't you?"_

"I--I'm not going to let you die, Daisy." The young homcanid sniffled his snout for the first time, his ears flopping as if he'd been defeated. "You're all I have."

"Now that's just being stupid." the female homcanid tossed him an annoyed look, more out of a sense of cheering him up. "Think about the Doppler Collection, and all those books you haven't finished... and how you're _this close _to proving the evolutionary formation of the _Arachni_ something, and... and Sarah! The baby that's coming... she might need your help someday, and you'll have to be strong for that. Goodness, Delbert, and you can have so many friends... why do you think I've been picking on you to talk more?"

Delbert was speechless; how could his cousin still find ways of teasing him at this awful situation? The way she was speaking to him, despite her uncomfortable appearance, was already making him miss her. Tears started swelling up behind his spectacles more and more.

"Daisy... I... I can't listen to this... anymore." The lanky young man staggered clumsily back towards the door, and searched blindly for the doorhandle, still looking at his cousin.

Daisy closed her mouth, believing herself that she had said quite enough, but placed her mouth into a slight, almost hesitant smile of old memories. "Okay. Delbert, I swear to you, everything will be alright... you'll see."

Delbert took in a breath, as if he had almost forgotten to breath throughout that entire conversation. The soothing voice he listened to was one he couldn't possibly forget about, and yet the determination he sensed in it was enough to tell him that he should accept things the way they were. Daisy was playing with his inner feelings because she knew him that well, and that her boost of confidence - even at this terrible state she was in - would help her cousin get through it all for the better. Delbert made a small grin, to acknowledge how much he understood her.

She continued to speak. "Listen, I need you to set some things in order for me..."

_The girl bit her lip softly at that question, as it hurt more on the inside than it hurt her imagination. Remembering what the two investigators told her, she panicked on the inside, feeling as if her stomach would decompose from the secrets she began to keep. Daisy looked over at her cousin with a deep smile, one of determination, not planning to shatter his dreams._

"_I'll try."_

_The two cousins kept their embrace, still fresh with tears from their losses that night, and became inseparable._


	4. the rebellious young Smollet

"She _WHAT???_"

Sarah's messy bangs flew in front of her eyes as she grabbed the edge of her chair in the waiting room, in reaction to what Delbert said. His face looked like he'd washed it tear-free with his sleeves, and simply kept a professional glance over to his friend.

"Cross my heart, Sarah, it's what she said..." Delbert raised a hand out if front of him as if he were conducting a symphony. "'_Delbert, I want you to write out my half of the Doppler inheritance over to Mrs. Sarah Hawkins, specifically for the funding of the Benbow Inn._'"

Of course, Delbert was exaggerating, as those last few minutes he had spent with Daisy had made him love his cousin more, with each step he walked on the hospital corridor. That smile in him came out in his words, and as he slowly dried up his tears, he reminded himself that Daisy should be well-rested for the remainder of her time. It's what she wanted. The request regarding Sarah's precious Benbow Inn was the first one Daisy had asked Delbert to take care of, and Delbert agreed it was a wonderful idea. She would be helping a friend fulfill a lifelong dream. Nothing else could commemorate Daisy better.

The homcanid also wondered if telling Sarah the _rest _of cell conversation would be the best thing to do, but after thinking about it... perhaps the revelation of that story called for a better time. Perhaps when those memories and thoughts of his cousin didn't hurt so much anymore.

"Are you _sure_ that's what she said?"

"Yes!"

"Honestly? Those exact words??"

"Verbatim."

Sarah gasped, spontaneously grabbing the homcanid's coat and shaking it a little with multiple ideas and doubts crossing her mind. She tried to maintain a rational hold of herself by looking into Delbert's torso. "My goodness... oh my _goodness_..."

"Um, Sarah... would you_ calm down_?" Delbert's spectacles were slipping down his snout from the shaking, and he nervously looked over at the corner of his eye to other hospital visitors. They pretended they weren't staring.

"No, no... this is insane! I can't accept that from her, Delbert. _I can't!_" Sarah carefully lifted herself and her swollen belly off the cushioned chair, unofficially using Delbert's coat as a crane. "I should go speak to her."

"She's asleep, Sarah, and believe me.. there is no arguing with Daisy about anything." Delbert flattened his coat sleeves back to normal with his fingers, then put his spectacles back in place. He gestured for Sarah to take a seat again, as he did so himself. "And if you think about it... would it really be the most terrible idea in the world? I mean she _does_ want to help you."

"I don't know, Delbert. I... I_ suppose_ it would be nice... to have..." Sarah blinked with a beat. "But I wasn't planning to get the Benbow Inn running so soon! Jonathan would probably have a _fit_ if he knew this!"

"There's absolutely no dent to this plan, Sarah!" Delbert tried to keep his excitement down, considering they were still in a hospital and visitors were already giving the pair a strange look. "You can tell Jonathan that Daisy has written out the funding for the Benbow Inn, and like it or not... the Inn will be constructed!" Delbert thought for a moment. "If you want, I'll go and tell him with you."

Sarah raised an eyebrow, and suddenly began to laugh whole-heartedly with disbelief. "I can talk to my husband with enough dilligence myself, thank you."

He raised his hands in a mocking defeat, raising his eyebrows. "Oh I was just saying the offer is here, if you need it."

"Shut up, Delbert."

Sarah made a grunting face in annoyance, and then humorously placed her hands on her side to support her straining back. Delbert simply grinned, massaging the back of his neck in wonderment as he finally seemed to realize how Daisy's spirit would always be there to help him... no matter what ridiculous situations he would put himself through.

At just about this time, at the far corner of Crescentia of the same Inglaterr Galaxy, a crowd gathered inside the torch-lighted second class pub called The Blind Pig, to see the final few seconds of a live arm-wrestling match. It was on the small planet of Tempestad, a place concerned with the refining barrier of nobility and the lower classes, and where the majority of young people trained abroad at the Naval Academy through privilege. They were the lucky ones, able to perceive their future as something located outside of the small planet. Of course, the ones who were left behind in the dark mining grounds or the noisy marketplaces would find their own sense of adventure without that privilege. They would find it in petty theft from wealthy visitors, gambling through games of euchre, and through half-drunken song about troubles they'd fallen into that day.

Tempestad was deeply regarded by many outsiders as a watering hole for galactic pirates, and those who were keen in knowing the liveliness of danger and the rewards of adventure knew exactly where to find their fellow friends.

The Blind Pig was one of those meeting places.

"_C'mon_, Mel... ye almost got 'im!"

A bulky homfelin with a scruffy beard cheered from a table, narrowing his eyes over his friend's shoulder with a conscious sense of excitement. Many of the visitors were doing the same in their own noisy, table-banging way. The rough-ridden homfelins played the bottom of their pints onto the wooden tables as they watched their fellow kind take on her opponent in the arm-wrestle.

The woman grit her teeth, showing her cat-like fangs without remorse as she put intense power onto her arm, but the opponent - an endurant squid-like creature just about her size - looked like he was at his last inch of strength holding the homfelin's arm. As the squid creature broke into intense sweat, with its nostrils flaring, the female knew it was all a breeze from there, and she managed to get carried away... by lifting her pint of omega rum for a drink with her other arm.

The spectators laughed and kept on banging their tables to cheer for her.

Most of the Blind Pig regulars knew her well... a young woman with long, wavy brown hair, perhaps no older that twenty, with a mature face and torn clothes that seemed to wear themselves out... but those who didn't know her at the Pig would've thought she was clearly in the wrong place. Not many women came into the Blind Pig, for the sake of their dignity, but Amelia "Mel" Smollet knew exactly how to keep her cool in the likes of men. Nobody knew why a young woman her age wanted to live this way... wrestling another man's arm for leisure and a few coins... but it all seemed to be just as amusing to her as it was to be a spectator. And the innkeeper welcomed her because of her charm.

"Almost... _almost_..._" _The eyes of the spectators rose higher, trying to zoom in on the centimeters that were between the squid's muscular arm and the wooden table. Amelia growled like a tiger in her arm's final shove towards victory.

"_YEAHHH!!!!!!_" People erupted with cheer, clapping their arms or multiple tentacles, and some even spilled their drinks from the quaking tables, but nobody seemed to notice.

Amelia slouched on the wresting table and exhaled from that work-out of her arm, closing her jade eyes to take in the victory. When she finally sat back up, she simply brushed the dark hair out of her face with a hand, and eyed the squid creature with her unfailing charm.

"An' that, sir, is how a lady gets her drinks in Tempestad. Ye' owe me another one!"

The pulpoid laughed as he regained himself, and pounded on the table for a waiter.

"Way te' go, Mel!" another large and muscular homfelin jumped into the gap next to the woman, wrapping a tight arm around her shoulder with fondness and support. "Haha... that's me girl... I knew ye' would do our kind proud."

Amelia laughed a little, ignoring the way her admirer's bulky arm curved around her back as she began to massage her arm. "Ah e' guess all the trainin' did help a li'l bit, did it not?" She transfixed her eyes over to her friend, in that teasingly judgemental way.

"Mel, why're ye always so rough with me? I'm a good man!" The large homanid teased, passing her the pint of citrus rum the pulpoid had ordered for her.

"Be'cause, Cassio, you can't take rejection unless i's thrown at you with _plasma _grenades," she smiled daringly at him.

The homfelins gathering at the table broke into hysterics and laughter, one of them giving Cassio a shaking head of disappointment. They all knew his efforts were there, clearly, but Amelia was a fiesty girl indeed.

"Hehe... mark me' words, Cass, ye sure know how to pick yer lady friends," one of them remarked, moving his black dreadlocks from his eyes to take a drink from his goblet.

Amelia threw a humorous glance across the table, pursing her lips over to Lepido as he commented. His short, stocky frame caved into a shrug, almost like saying he couldn't help but speak the truth, and Amelia rolled her eyes amusingly, cuddling back next to her friend Cassio.

There was live music playing in the back of the pub, then, as a one-man-band Pulpoid began playing a pair of fiddles and a drum. The Blind Pig was returning back to its regular feel of social storytelling and chatter within each table, the waiters washing tables with cloth, and every so often a visitor would come in to unite with his or her respectful friends. The seven homfelins remained in their table, chatting about their uncomfortable jobs and regurgitating their recent encounters with the law.

"Those sentinels keep multiplyin' throughout these parts, e' tell ya, Cass..." the ungracefully thin homfelin sitting on the other side of Amelia bruted in his raspy voice. "sooner 'er later their gonna find what w'been up to and throw us all into th' gutters."

"Oh, don' be daft, Genkin, they're not all that clever..." Amelia muttered, while the rest of the homfelins paused over to her direction, with mixed looks of confusion and amazement. The one named Genkin caught it as well, spilling into a chuckling frenzy from the girl's involuntary twist in lingo. Amelia's green eyes eventually found her mistake too, and she couldn't hide the blushing cheeks even from her long wavy locks.

"Ah ha ha, Mel... what're we gonna do w'you?" Cassio asked rhetorically and grabbed his pitcher of ale, pouring another full pint for himself.

"Well ye' take th' girl ou'a privilege, eh?" The prophet-like Genkin held his mug out for some more ale. "But it won' take th' privilege ou'a th' girl!"

Amelia kept her cheeks glowing pink, as she couldn't hide the fact that Genkin was completely right. She laughed along with them, though, because she owned up to the truth. Even if she could never speak like one of them, it was where she belonged... and she always felt thankful for Cassio for rescuing her from her grief.

As the homfelins surrounding her kept taunting about the woman's lack of perfect low-class speech, Amelia's mind seemed to overlook the interior of the pub, seeing the faces of the visitors who were familiar to her. She located the pulpoid from the wrestling match in one corner, who'd taken up a game of cards with his loyal squid-like friends, and exchanged a smile at him. She found the same old woman with the puffy lips and the crippled arm, trying to flirt with the bartender and fish the slightest laugh out of him. She saw how a pair of young troublemakers trying to poke a curvy homfelin waitress into toppling her tray of drinks, and how that no-nonsense waitress held her own, glaring at the men with all of her dignity.

Amelia was fascinated by this place as far back as she could remember, ever since Cassio invited her there to meet his fellow companions for the first time... the men who'd take a knife to the throat for each other's lives. She loved this feeling of loyalty, and it helped her escape the emotional brutality and unkindness she had felt at home. There were times when that clean, perfect Victorian house on the hills of Tempestad did not even seem like a home for her, and she could never be seen as something more than the little girl in front of her family's eyes. She did not regret running away.

"Blast me, if Hugo Smollet could see 'is darlin' li'l girl now..."

As Amelia overheard Cassio's amused voice, gradually getting her mind back into the conversation at her table, a pair of unfamiliar eyes had caught her square from the other end of the bar. The female homcanid did not think much of this gaze, but as she looked over to the man's eyes, his appearance seemed to both frighten her and fascinate her.

The man was a pyedrad -- a stone-based creature that was not seen so often on this side of Tempestad, and in this case he had not come alone for a drink. While this one was built, square-faced and stern, his pyedrad friend sitting adjacent to him was smaller and more of the chatterbox of the two. The man held his drink in his hands, pretending to have taken a sip, but as he looked at Amelia... it seemed that his interest was not in his thirst, but on a staring contest with her.

All of a sudden, she felt very uncomfortable, and leaped her thoughts back into the conversation with her homfelins.

"...nah, Lep, we shoud'e been quicker with that warnin' shot over at the _Brabantium. _Ah mean... they sure be still boggling over 'oo took them pearl cargo months ago, but we can' take chances li' that..."

Amelia pretended to listen, while at the same time her concern seemed to settle to her throat, as the stern pyedrad refused to find another gazing interest elsewhere. At the corner of her eye, Amelia felt that he never blinked. _Why the damn hell was he keeping his eye at their direction?_

"I'say for the coming raid, we shou' get Mel here to make th' diversion, no? She's the fastest one of us..."

"Eh?" Amelia broke that train of panic from hearing the proposition Lepido made in a low voice. If her instincts had told her correctly, he had been asking if this slender homfelin girl could sneak into the upcoming arrival of _Grand Orpheum_ and compose the stealing of their Imperial pearls. It was a raid the crew was looking forward to plot for months... and it would be the most life-threatening one for them yet.

Cassio didn't seem to like the idea right away, his face looking concerned as he gulped another bit of his ale, and turning over to Amelia. He was about to say something, but his look of doubt made Amelia beat him to the speech.

"Ah _come off it_." Amelia banged her half-drunk pint of rum on the table, giving a small growl to her voice. "I can 'andle any stunt li' that... you recall how swift I was with those tumbles the last time? I _demand_ a promotion!"

"Easy, Mel... I was jus' pullin' yer hair for a bit of fun, no harm..." Cassio looked pleased to see his friend build up a stronger will to herself, and teasingly grabbed a bit of her locks in a fun gesture. "Mark me words, men, this lady'll be bringin' us the next bucket o' sardines with all that loot we'll be gettin', eh? Here here!"

"_Here here_!" The crew banged their pints with one another's and gulped down their ale joyously. Amelia did the same, smiling and laughing at the challenge Cassio had just offically made for her. The Blind Pig's music seemed to become all the more lively to Amelia, imagining how her first diversion in a piracy raid would be all for the goodness of dangerous excitement.

It was at that moment... when she decided to glance back at that bulky pyedrad man with a bit more fearlessness in her frame... that she noticed he and his friend had disappeared.


	5. the arrival of the Odyssey

James Pleiades Hawkins was born on a very early April morning, while the stars of the Crescentia continued to glisten like crystals alongside the windows of the hospital's maternity wing. Sarah happily watched as the morning's clouds of glare faded the Crescentia towards the beginning of the day, while she cradled the bundle of life in her arms. Jonathan moved closer to her hospital bed and gently wrapped a hand around the tiny fists of his new infant son, smiling from the comfort that concluded a long and stressful delivery.

"Hey there, Jim..." he greeted softly to his sleepy boy, as Sarah admired the dazed look on her husband's face.

Jonathan had been reluctant to begin the construction of the Benbow Inn, after hearing his wife's overly-excited monologue of reasons why to do so. His first thought was that she had conjured up this lie about a trust fund that Daisy Egburt had supposedly written out for her... but as he dug into the assets, Jonathan became pleased with Daisy's philanthropy, and eventually chose to assist with construction to the Benbow Inn much more actively. More or less, it was to please his wife's dream, and for their future home as a Hawkins family.

The Inn carried the majority of Daisy's classic cottage-like design, yet it maintained the proper quality and utilities to function well as a top-rated residence for travelers. Jonathan's solar-powered expertise brought the electric system and heat circulation it needed... with the minimal amount of expense, of course. Delbert implemented great effort into Daisy's concept of the Inn, and he couldn't help but notice how Jonathan was very keen to invest his time in it as well. He knew Jonathan was a businessman - an expert in money management - so without much argument to Sarah, Delbert believed it best to have him manage the finances to the Inn. Of course, he never did quite express his real thoughts about this decision.

Jonathan touched the warm and perfect little hands of his new son, losing those worries of numbers and debt, trying to believe that this family would blossom into something wonderful. There were times when he couldn't help but worry about the debt the term "family" would bring to him, but the surprise that came with Sarah's love, and the care he already felt with his son, gave him that security that things would eventually solve themselves.

He kissed Sarah delicately on the cheek, before leaving for work that same afternoon.

Daisy awoke by the tiny fingers of a newborn brushing against her shoulder a few days later, and although her features looked pale and fragile, she gasped with joy as two familiar figures in her hospital cell smiled. The bags under her eyes slowly gazed over to Sarah who was near the bedside (sitting in a wheelchair) and nodded with glee and disbelief at the resemblance this little boy seemed to have in her.

"We thought this would cheer you up a bit," Delbert added on the other side of Daisy's bed, as Sarah handed her the sleepy little bundle with great care.

Delbert had visited his cousin all throughout those last couple of months, in the moments when he wasn't studying for his exams or working on his doctoral defense for the astrophysics department. Every day, he brought her a single flower, and now and then he would surprise her with the latest bakery recipe he had attempted in his kitchen at the Manor. Daisy's taunts about his cooking continued to cheer him up, surprisingly, and with the falling efforts of her mind, Daisy continued to sketch to keep herself occupied. She drew so much, Delbert recalled bringing her a new sketchbook more than once, and he was always fascinated by the intricate detail of the flowers, the faces, and the memories she made on pencil.

Instead of counting the pages of his Astronomy dissertation, Delbert counted the number of weeks... days... that his cousin had left in this world within Inglaterr. As he watched Daisy gaze down at the little bundle with admiration, Delbert noticed her sketchbook over on her nightstand, gathering dust, while her body was so frail on her bed, it looked like she had not eaten since she came there.

"You two... are unbelievable." Daisy said softly between a few breathes, the smoothness in her voice only existing as a hint now. The baby yawned, showing clear signs of sleepiness and pure innocence that brought tears to her eyes. "Wh-what's this little prince's name... Sarah?"

Sarah recited the boy's name proudly, while Delbert's ears twitched at the sound "Pleiades" made uncomfortably. The woman in the wheelchair gave a stern look over to his direction, and Daisy laughed softly.

"I think... it's a great name," Daisy ignored her cousin's face and closed her eyes to regenerate her enthusiasm, despite the fact that her mind was slowly getting empty, "It sounds... a little heroic..."

Sarah shrugged meekly, indicating that she wasn't remotely close to being a names expert. "I wanted to name him after close family. James is my younger brother." Sarah caressed the little boy's brown hair as Daisy continued to cuddle with it. The baby's eyes were still shut tightly, only making the occasional movement of his nose and mouth. "He's back over in Columnia, so I barely get to see him anymore. Man, I miss that Jim sometimes..."

"_Pleiades_,hmm?" Delbert kept that curious tone with his eyebrow raised, wondering if that presumed heroism to the bundle would keep it from crying, unlike the other ones in the Maternity wing. "That word rings a bell in my ear... isn't it the name of a Columnian constellation on the sector of Taurus?"

"Yeah that's right!" Sarah's eyes beamed, as if an image in her mind had just clicked, and she lifted her hands from the wheelchair to gesture accordingly. "Tt was something I remembered about Jonathan back when we first met... he was trying to impress me, and he pointed to a bizarre cluster of blue stars in the sky and told me it was called the Five Sisters of Pleiades."

"Five?" Delbert gathered his thoughts a little, trying to recall the specific lecture notes he'd taken on that particular constellation many years ago. "I thought it was Seven..."

"Haha... yeah, I believed pretty much anything he said at that point. The funny thing is I looked up the constellation on my own, long after we'd been dating..." Sarah's porcelain face blushed a little with embarrassment over herself. "Anyway, I knew he was trying to be sweet... and I guess the name just stuck."

The little Jim Hawkins rolled over a little and opened his sleepy eyes towards Daisy.

"Aw...my goodness... oh, he has Jonathan's eyes... Sarah! And whose nose is that, I see?" Daisy gently touched the tip of the boy's nose, giggling and making faces as she watched him stare with those light blue eyes at the stranger above him. She eyed over to Sarah and Delbert with sheer delight. The boy did not seem to panic immediately, but his expressions clearly showed that he had already established who his mother was in the room.

By the end of that day, the two women in the hospital room had exchanged updates on the construction to the Inn, making sure that Daisy's designs and Sarah's input were both being acknowledged respectfully. Delbert would pitch in now and then, with talks of finances and insurance arrangement that Jonathan may have articulated much better, but nevertheless, he talked to them openly. At one point, Daisy handed him the baby to hold while her arms rested from the weight, and the homcanid tried very hard to keep the strain from showing in his nervous eyebrows.

Nevertheless, Delbert couldn't imagine how happy Daisy must have been that afternoon, because in his own mind, he knew she had wished to live just enough to hold Sarah's little boy.

On the deep taverns and alleyways of the far planet of Tempestad, the clan of miscreant homfelins had finally made it to the day they were hoping for, with the _Grand Odyssey _arriving on the main port with its luxuriousness of all the corners Inglaterr.

The _Odyssey _was - before anything else - a luxury recruitment liner owned by Sir Nigel Roberts, Dean of the Interstellar Military Academy, and it was currently on a voyage to receive newly-recruited navigators who were dedicating themselves to serve in the ongoing struggle with the Procyon galaxy. It was a place Inglaterr had been receiving vile threats of political and economic upheaval with as far back as history books could take them. Tempestad was not exactly a regular stop for the _Odyssey_, as the residents of the planet were usually too volatile to follow any rules of order, or too wealthy and ignorant to deal with the politics of such things. This was a memorable year for Tempestad, however, since many homfelins, pyedrads, and other creatures with financial means had decided to make a name for themselves in the military, and for them, it was a chance to have that opportunity of privilege in their lives.

One of the perks of being accepted into Interstellar was the culture of formality... and those who usually could not even afford a cufflink were now given a full custom-fitted tuxedo or gown, made exclusively to wear on the inauguration ball that same night they were to leave their respected planet for training.

The ball would also be taking the liberty of displaying the finest jewelry from all over Inglaterr, and Cassio smiled with thirst as he imagined all those Imperial pearls glimmering along the vast ballroom of the Odyssey... hanging around the necks and fine wrists of the women being recruited that night. Yes, the homfelins would indeed crash this formal party, and the one distraction would sneak in under the guards' noses as if she were a lady of fellow royalty herself.

And that was why Amelia Smollet cursed under her breath, since Cassio never mentioned her having wearing a _dress _at this diversion, until then.

"You... spineless..._ maggots._" Mel stood before her friends, only looking at the layers of silk fabric that Cassio had brought out to her, with Lepido and the others snickering in the background. Clearly, they had strategically stolen this dress from one of the unsupervised carriages passing by the older town that day, delivering the outfits to the respectful recruits. And yet Amelia still snarled at Cassio, hating the dress far more than the offering smile he was giving to her.

"_Scoundrels!_" Her jade eyes flared with mild rage, not believing how low her friends had stooped. "Ah'll be hanged by the _ears_ b'fore doin' anything like this..." she didn't care how bad her rough-ridden language was sounding, because she just wanted to burn that dress. The only source of fire nearby was the dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the backroom tavern, so it all seemed hopeless to her.

"Mel... c'mon." Cassio balanced the silken dress in front of Amelia's eyes as if were a play toy for her to chase. The snickering in the background continued, but Cassio didn't join in. "I's only fabric, and i's just for this one night, probably for not more than 'en hour."

"Jus' fabric, Cassio?" Amelia remarked angrily, her voice keeping the no-nonsense of her frame as much as she could hold it. She pointed an accusing finger at her friend. "Be honest... this is nothin' but humiliating my start as a--"

"–a what, Mel? Ye' mean one o' us?"

"Ah'v driven my share w'the likes o' you all, and for _once _I ask ye' not to look a'me as... as..." The homfelin girl glanced over at the sympathetic Genkin as he shook his head to her to rethink her thoughts. Amelia growled at a loss for words, and picked up her ragged coat to leave the dim tavern's backroom.

"Mark me Mel," Cassio approached and hid the fabric behind his back to spare her disgusted face. Amelia carried that reluctant fire the same way she had held it to him a year ago, when saying she'd wanted to join his clan. "Ye' got eh long way te' go before callin' the shots... and ferst, ye' gotta face that te us, ye'll always be looked at... differently."

"Cass, shut it." Amelia held her coat in a threatening way, her long mane of hair looking even more wild with her anger. She almost kicking herself for not bringing the one dagger she had with her to this meet.

"Bu' tha's good fer business, e'm sayin'!" Cassio's whiskers flinched with sincerity, and he motioned over to his crew for support and some of then nodded their heads in sincerity.

"Mel, we're bein' honest now. Ye' can fit in as a woman there be'er than any o'us can... and e' don't mean jus' by the..." Lepido motioned the obvious chest area of the body, but his laughter had stopped to establish more of a serious tone. "E' mean... ye' had_ class _once. Ye know how to _act_ li' all the riches o' these parts."

"And tha's how the rest o' us'll 'ave access te' those jewels, ye' catch?" one of the other homfelins added in the background.

Amelia couldn't believe what she was hearing. Of all the tricks to be played with a woman... who had sworn to never, ever wear another_ bloody _ball gown again... she scrunched her eyebrows tightly and pretended to overlook those smiles of delight that were brewing among the crew... the ones who promised they'd treat her as an equal.

With all Amelia's negligence to wear the dress, Cassio and the crew were right about the best plan of action; the best way to see the entire course of the evening was to be one of the attendees at the ball itself. And goodness knows... none of the men were gentlemen-like in nature, and Cassio could probably pull it off decently, until the moment he'd have to open his mouth to say something.

It was at that instant when Amelia sighed at not losing her high-class English sooner. There was no way around it; unless the crew unanimously decided to eat rotten tuna for another while and abort the raid... Mel would have to be the lovely diversion of the evening. Amelia rolled her eyes for a 'yes' and the crew huddled together in the dim room to discuss their plan of action that night. Despite her mood, Amelia still had great respect for Cassio - especially when he explained to her the details to her diversion tactic.

But if she ever saw a single suggestive gaze, or heard but a single synonym of "lovely" from the crew as she wore that heavy trove of silk... that man would be spitting out quite a number of his own teeth.

The ball gown's red-coral tone complimented well the green intensity of Amelia's eyes, and she was at least satisfied with the fact that its outline did not present her as fragile and delicate as a doll. Cassio had taken full initiative to ask the tavern-keeper's lady friend to help Mel with her hair and make-up... except the problem was that this other woman (who had a missing front tooth) fashioned make-up and hair for a _particular _type ofaudience that regularly came to the tavern. In the end, with a shade of lipstick too dark and her hair tied up a bit too loosely, Amelia still prayed she could pass off as a respectable lady at the _Odyssey_, for the sake of getting those pearls without much humiliation along the way.

With a borrowed set of worn black heels by the tavern-keeper's lady friend, the elegant-looking Mel Smollet carefully stepped out of the tavern's alley to begin her diversion to the _Grand Odyssey_'s Inauguration Ball... but not without first throwing an abandoned shoe at Lepido, who'd made the mistake of whistling at her.


	6. the unformidable Arrow

**NOTE**: **yeah, I know... I've been a little slow about Doppler's development, but I _promise_ things will start rolling after this chapter. I needed to give other characters a little more depth first. As usual, the Disney ones aren't mine. )**

Amelia almost tripped on her heels as she walked up the dazzling ramp to the _Odyssey_, seeing the other glamorous recruits passing by her, all of them shining in their costumes like a moving bunch of colorful Christmas ornaments. She maintained a keen eye for the guards and counted the number of them who were keeping watch at the two entrances, and making sure she did not look at all concerned about being let in. The young homfelin nodded with confidence, as there were not more than four guards, which could easily be taken care of by her well-known crew.

"Good evening, madam." One of the human guards closest to her acknowledged her, expecting for her to say a name to check off the list. Suddenly, Amelia's eyes narrowed slightly, realizing that he was waiting for a valid name... but she held her breath and continued her diversion tactic.

"Hello, good sir." The proper English seemed to come back to her instantly, like a child remembering the words to an old song. Amelia managed to create a small grin on her face, but inside, she knew she was trembling. "The name is Winifred Smollet."

Her voice didn't reveal the nervousness as she borrowed her mother's name, nor did the man look at her oddly or go down the list quickly enough to validate it. Amelia Smollet exchanged a determined glance to the guard, and she walked past him to enter the ship with so much assurance in her frame. While the guard questioned the color of the woman's lipstick, he did not seem to doubt her validation for a moment, and he quickly turned his head over to the next person in line for the entrance.

Carrying the numerous layers of her coral gown in a calm pace to the _Odyssey_'s ballroom, Amelia would blend in with the other young female recruits that soon, the crowd would make any guard almost hopeless to distinguish her true nature.

The ballroom's magnificent dome ceiling brought out a beautiful skylight to the stars that night, where the guests were able to admire the deep blue Etherium and its many wonders while they greeted and asked respective recruits for a dance. Amelia watched as the young women around her seemed pleased from their formal invitations, but to her, it all seemed like one of those terrible dreams that had repeatedly marked her younger life. The cocktail napkins and the silverware that was neatly placed along the one wall with the appetizers made Amelia purse her lips, seeing them perfectly alined, without a single spot blocking the glimmer.

Rather than greeting the real Academy recruits around her, Amelia ran through the diversion tactic in her mind, looking up to the dome ceiling to find a potential hook for her rope. Cassio explained that three of their crew would begin to climb to the top of the skylight the moment Amelia entered into the ship, and they would hide themselves from the open sky by carefully lying motionless at the railing of the dome. She looked up to the gigantic, translucent dome that overshadowed grand ballroom with its dominant beauty, noticing how Lepido's scrawny leg positioned itself slightly into view (only for a moment), and Amelia told herself that the raid was going according to plan. and she couldn't help but breathe in a sense of exhaustion.

Amelia remembered those days, when her father hosted grand birthday parties in the gardens of their backyard, where for her mother's friends, the childish occasion seemed to be an excuse to appear in beautiful gowns, sipping sparkling champaign, and to laugh about the most recent gossip. The homfelin looked at the dome, and she remembered playing hide-and-seek with her mother's friends' children, chasing each other in the gardens from under those glamorous gowns. She remembered getting pinched on by her mother in more than one occasion - since that sort of behavior was improper for a young lady. If there was anything Winifred Smollet did not tolerate, it was childish behavior from her only girl, raised to be as pure as a delicate flower... as light as a feather...

"Excuse me, Miss?"

The low, ruggish voice of a man broke her chain of memories, and Amelia blinked, turning over to her right side, seeing that it was a pyedrad in a blue tuxedo, just about her height.

"Yes? What d'you–...how do you _do_, sir?" It had not been more than ten minutes that she'd stepped into the ballroom, and the woman already felt foolish with her language.

"I just noticed you were looking up at the dome quite fondly." The man's proper English trailed off, as he glanced up to the sky for a moment's thought. "Counting the stars, are you?"

"No... not really," Amelia did not intend to make this small talk go any deeper, since she was mentally counting the minutes before the signal would be made by Cassio from the top of the skylight, and she strategized the movements she needed to make with the rope and hooks tucked under her dress...

"Well I guess that makes two of us doesn't it." The pyedrad remarked with humor. "What is your name?"

"Winifred, sir." Amelia pretended to build interest in the man's noble face, as he still seemed to want a small greeting or conversation. Although she felt this was leading into unnecessary tomfoolery, she continued to play her part and extended her hand in the formality that felt obligatory in such a place. "Pleased to meet you."

"It's an honor, dear lady; my name is Roscinant," and with that, the pyedrad shook Amelia's hand, and a tall female pyedrad with a lavender gown casually approached the two of them. The homfelin instantly noticed the necklace she'd been wearing; a glowing vision of Imperial pearls that were almost hypnotizing.

"Beatrice, darling..." the man greeting the pyedrad admirably. " I'd like you to meet... Winifred, was it?"

Amelia's eyes took a second too long to glance over at the man's eyes, but she blinked and nodded as a response, then turned her head over to the woman, wearing the necklace. For some reason, she found it difficult to blink from the divine opalescence of the pearls. "Yes...I'm Winifred Smollet."

"Ah, so another Smollet I see has followed the family footsteps."

"Precisely what I was about to say, dear." Roscinant generously placed a hand around his lady's shoulder, and Amelia raised an eyebrow in curiosity. She knew that her brothers had made grand names of themselves at the Academy, but she did not make it a priority to know their colleagues' names religiously. Why were these two people so pleased to have found another Smollet in the crowd? To her, the name was merely another one of dozens of well-established pedigrees... as her father would tell her time and again.

"Didn't you say your _brother_ trained with a Smollet recruit a few years back?" the male pyedrad caressed Beatrice's shoulder as he mentioned the question. Amelia had almost about had it with this unnecessary conversation, and was brainstorming an excuse to let herself prepare more for the diversion... her second signal to Lepido was to place herself either at the other end of the ballroom or at the center of the ballroom, and then he would scratch the skylight's glass as a signal to Cassio's ultrasensory ears in the vents, telling him to shut off the lights precisely.

"Yes, he did!" Beatrice replied with a rekindling cheer, looking at her companion sweetly. "Why I'm sure he'd love to see a familiar... oh where is that man... Oy! _Arrow_!!" The thin pyedrad named Beatrice motioned an elegant hand waspishly over her head to a man a about twenty yards away from them... and the tall, bulky figure turned its head over to Beatrice and the others.

That's when Amelia's stomach churned in sudden panic. Those eyes that had stared at her from The Blind Pig so many weeks ago had again met her glance from the calling of his name. He didn't seem to recognize her quickly enough, but as Beatrice said "brother, come over here a second!" Amelia knew that the pyedrad would be approaching them without any hesitation.

"Oh, no I... sorry, I must..." Amelia couldn't find words to explain herself, but she began to move away, one step at a time. _Dammit, _she thought... she had to get away from the crowd and find the circuits herself. She had to signal up to Lepido to stay put... otherwise something might go terribly wrong. Perhaps the center of attention was not her favorite spot.

"Nonsense!" the woman remarked pleasantly, "Arrow is a wonderful man, and he surely will need to dance with a Smollet. It's the least he could do, since the man's life was saved and all..."

Amelia could not believe what was she was hearing, much less know what the foolish woman was talking about. Nor did she seem to want to by the way the large pyedrad had looked at her so ruthlessly. The homfelin was certain he would discover her act, and turn her in immediately.

"Arrow, brother!" As the man finally came to the group, Beatrice touched her brother's arm in a greeting and then gestured to Amelia's presence, "I would like you to meet Winifred Smollet; she's a new recruit, I believe... isn't that right?"

Poor Amelia said nothing, keeping her frame as courageous as she could, biting her lies down with her lip and remaining calm. Pirates always remained calm, didn't they? The pyedrad named Arrow examined her facial expression, making what seemed like a "humph" sound. As the

couple at their side watched, it seemed to bring a bit of pressure into their awkward eyes, and the bulky pyedrad extended his hand in courtesy to Amelia.

"First Lieutenant Cornelius Arrow, ma'am."

Amelia's eyes refused to blink, but her hand hesitated as she extended it as well, for a sincere clasp of the man's hard grip.

"A pleasure." She forced a smile and a bit of a laugh to hide the strain she was feeling on the inside, and Arrow's face was as stiff as the stone he was made of. He kept her hand tightly, and moved her arm to his direction, intending for her to walk with him to the ballroom with him for a brief dance.

Had she been less frightened, less placed on the spot, Amelia would have let go and said politely that she could not dance. She would have backed away and run straight to one of the restrooms to plan an alternate diversion plan, banging on one of the vents in morse code that she needed more time before he shut off the light circuits. But the pyedrad's grip on her hand was very stiff, and she wasn't sure whether it was a keen invitation to dance, or to be punished.

She looked at him almost with a glare, trying to show her fearlessness towards this stranger as they positioned themselves for a simple waltz, and overlooking the fact that he was clearly a few heads taller than her. Amelia had forgotten almost to dance the waltz after so many years, but she took a glance over at the other couples, and took an improvisational idea.

Arrow took the first step, and Amelia reluctantly followed, keeping her bitter breaths to herself with every waltzing glide he would lead for her. After a few mutual dance steps along the classical music, Amelia felt that she had had quite enough with this awkward tension, and decided to speak up to the stone beast who held her hand. With dignity, she certainly was not about to call him by a formidable title...

"_Mr. Arrow_, would it be too much to ask if you looked elsewhere for a _fraction _of second?"

The man finally blinked, and drew a hardening breath.

"I apologize... ma'am, but I believe it was the uncanny resemblance between you and a colleague of mine that stuck with me, then." Arrow knew exactly how this woman felt by the stiffness of her hands, her desire to stop dancing and to quit making fools of themselves. The pyedrad began to take smaller steps in the dance, as he kept talking in his low, gravel-like voice.

"Quite frankly," he said, " I never considered finding a Smollet in the... most louche corners of the planet. I didn't think it was you at first, with that sort of behavior I noticed in you... it just did not seem to connect well with the family Dominic had described to me..."

_Oh yes... Dominic. _Amelia snarled. _He does express his opinion with an unbiased truth over _everything_, doesn't he? _

The woman rolled her eyes, wondering why God had cursed her with such a naive, egotistical twin.

"Did he happen to mention how his sister was the black sheep of this perfect Smollet family, all because she refused to play the piano in front of mixed company?" Amelia stared dangerously up into Arrow's frame, wanting to see how this man would react. He gazed at her with disbelief and intrigue at the same time.

"If I were you, Mr. Arrow, I would not take Dominic Smollet's stories too seriously."

"Hmm. I couldn't agree more with you, m'lady. But I must confess, I believed the one story he said to me last year during training... that his sister had gone missing..."

Cornelius Arrow's hand held Amelia's tightly, conceiling those wheels that turned in his mind. He looked at her with almost lifeless black eyes, as if trying to read her thoughts, or calculating the reasons for here being here at the ball.

Amelia remembered the way the pyedrad had stared at her at the Pig while the other homfelins were talking amongst themselves about tonight's ball. The man must have been keeping a close ear to that conversation. He must have been expecting to see Amelia here, at some point during the night. Amelia challenged those stone cold eyes of Arrow, knowing full well now that he did not believe she had been "accepted" into the Academy, or into the special inauguration ball.

The man was an Academy superior; and while this matter had become unexpectedly personal, it was his job that night to clean the hoaxes out...

Surprisingly enough, the pair continued to dance slowly, blending into the dance floor with the other couples. Nobody seemed to listen to what they had been saying, or how cold their hands must have been feeling during each step and turn.

Amelia did not have a second to realize where she and Arrow had stood on the dancefloor, before the hundreds of lights hanging over the dome ceiling flickered themselves out.

As the darkness brought questions and panic to the guests, Amelia's grace and nocturnal vision gave her the advantage to slip out of Arrow's clasping hand at the reaction to the darkness, and she began to glide and tumble along the rows of people around her, snatching the shiny objects her eyes could locate for her in the vast darkness. Before long, Amelia used her lovely ballgown as an open totebag to the jewelry, that she picked around the quivering women without so much as a quick snatch every time.

Cries of confusion erupted through the ballroom as the other fellow homfelins entered from the dome's broken ceiling, and Cassio and the others found their way through the ventilation system and back doors. Genkin had the 20-foot getaway lifeglider stationed secretly below the _Odyssey_ to take these pirates off with their loot as soon as they were finished, and carefully he made sure that he did not move under the tarp until the Cassio's distinct whistle told him to do so.

The most time they calculated they had was five minutes to grab as many pearls as they could, before the guards would reboot the circuit breakers on the ship and get the lights in the ballroom to work again. Lepido had made certain that no homfelin would be on guard that night during the inauguration to catch them at their game in the darkness... but he made the most awful mistake of ruling out the sentinels themselves... the ones who would show up in plainclothes and pretend to be utility crew.

Although neither of them were homfelins, one of them... a bold, bearded human... had quickly brought out his pocket flashlight at the sudden blackout of the ship, and caught sight of the getaway lifeglider at the edge of his window. Slowly, he moved around the massive amount of suitcases and cargo along the unwinding ramp of the dark storage room, to get a better look.

The man didn't think much of it at first... perhaps it was just another one of those stella rays who liked to traveled below enormous ships in long journeys. But as his aquamarinal knowledge eventually gathered... the so-called stella ray did not have its lethal tail, nor did it seem to move out of deprivation for the journey ahead.

He called to the other sentinel in the back room - an android - to see what it could make of it with its programmed night-vision, and it wasn't long before the robot had gathered the facts in his mental database, calculating the amount of time these scallywags had before making an escape route to their mission. Five minutes.

"Get to that lifeglider and do what you can to detach those power cables."

The human sentinel saluted and broke into a run out of the dark storage room to confront the pirate under the tarp. It was the only obstacle he needed to go through, to make sure the other pirates would not get away with their loot.

The android had contacted the ship's security and guard through digital microchips behind each cadets' ears, the robotic voice reaching their eardrums like a hallucinated whisper.

"Code 22." The one for a passive act of piracy.

The captain of the guard took immediate action after that, informing the ship's master electrician to get going on the rebooting of the ship's main power surge to turn the lights on again. If the lights went on, the capture procedure would take half the amount of time to go through... but until then, the guards would need to be on each pirate's trail one-by-one. As the panicking voices stirred louder and louder in the dark ballroom, the guards scrambled through the crowds in their night vision masks to see any sign of graceful movement. Through their blurry night-vision they could see the figure of a woman in a dress, hanging in mid-air by a rope around her waist and almost down towards the crowd... her hands distinctively in motion towards the people below, picking jewelry off of them as if flowers from a garden.

The guards could not tell clearly that this woman's rope was being maneuvered by three pirates above the dome, and that Amelia's eyes could perfectly see through the dark ballroom at the men who were attempting to see things through silly-looking masks. She counted her minutes wisely, feeling she still carried enough time before tugging on the rope for Lepido to pull her up and to head towards the getaway lifeglider.

Cassio and the men at his side flew out of the ventilation system, running through the corridors with their nocturnal vision leading the way. They made their way into the ballroom as well, swimming through the frantic young women as the were stripped of their pendants, bracelets, and necklaces in the darkness. Cassio took affirmative action with this kind of piracy, not having to be seen to make a presence to those who were clearly afraid of his snatching fingers. He smiled as he watched Mel enjoy the view from her hanging rope, almost swimming through that mid air in her dress. The homfelin colleagues around him couldn't feel more pleased, snatching all the shimmering jewels that highlighted themselves even in the dark. The crossed wires and circuits his crewmembers made in the power station would take at least a few minutes to re-organize, and the pirates needed as much time as they could to flee themselves back towards storage rooms and crawl their way to the escape boat.

As the outside breeze made the human sentinel shiver from a cold, he climbed alongside the bottom walls of the ship like a lizard's side-winding nature to a wall. Carefully, with one hand holding on to his rock-climber's hook at the waist, he swung himself over to touch the edge of the tarp, which camouflaged the lifeglider perfectly like a shadow under the ship. He noticed a small purple spark that burned at one of the booster cells, realizing that the lifeglider was running at his lowest to keep prepared for the worst. The man knew somebody was there keeping watch of the lifeglider, and he set his mercurion pistol at a hand as he opened the tarp to see what was under it.

A rapid fire of plasma, as swift as a blowdart to the neck, had suddenly struck the man's torso, and a rush of warmth seemed to go through his entire body for one moment, and then cold the next. His shocked frame lost grip to the lifeglider with the slipperiness of his own blood, and the man swung loosely in the air, his waist still being connected to the wall of the ship.

Replacing the small pistol back into his jacket, Genkin didn't have enough time to realize what he had done as he emerged from the tarp... nor to regret it. The man had been a sentinel, after all, and Genkin could not risk losing the lifeglider's power of escape. As if working through an invisible manual, he immediately boosted the power of the engines to start the lifeglider at full speed and fly overhead to grab Lepido and the others on the dome. Ultimately, Genkin was now the one who had to go through the most difficult part of the pirate code; leaving some men behind, while on the attempt to rescue others.

Amelia, Cassio, and the ones still lurking inside the ship did not cross his mind.

The human sentinel's eyes of shock looked into nothingness ahead, and his body swung limply at the end of his climbing hook like a child's toy, at the bottom of the most magnificent ship to ever make dock in Tempestad. He caught a faint glimpse purple flames that geared the lifeglider away from him, and as his cold body became stiff and less of life... Ezekiel Silver knew he would not be coming home again.


	7. the doctoral defense at Montressor

Two days after she held little Jim, Daisy Egburt fell into a deep, peaceful sleep on her bed in the Neurology & Mental Health Ward of the hospital. She never woke up.

Delbert's spectacles became damp from the tears that formed in his eyes as she gave him the final words of wisdom, smiling at him like any older sibling would.

Carefully, with the sniffles still in him, he placed her head gently back against the pillowrest, then went over to the night stand and pressed the button on a control pad to notify the hospital staff. He spoke to the staff about the arrangements for the body, his voice quivering a little bit from the readjustment to the reality around him. Delbert watched as they carried his cousin's body, her blanket, her sketchbooks... out of the neurology room and towards the outer hallway.

"G-Goodbye, daisyface." he whispered to himself, ignoring the quiver of his voice.

The homcanid remained there in the cell for a few moments, overlooking each metallic corner, taking his spectacles off and cleaning them to get his mind off of all the countless feelings that were running through his head. He examined the lifelessness of it all... a cell where for months it had been the heart of warmth and energy of his cousin. In his own pace, Delbert gathered his thoughts, his spectacles, and his own immediate future within those walls, and draining himself from the sadness... he opened the cell door and stepped out into the blinding hallway's light.

It was like Daisy was pushing him as a sudden clash of reality that reminded him of the other close friend still residing in the Montressor hospital - a few floors below - and although his mind was very calm... he picked up his clumsy walking pace and found the emergency staircases to get to the Maternity ward.

"Sorry... excuse me... gangway...!" Delbert found himself saying as he rushed down the Maternity hallway, his spectacles bouncing on his snout, looking passed the many faces of people and infants as he did so.

As he approached the hospital room marked _Hawkins_, his running pace slowed down gradually until it finally yielded into a stop. The other hospital residents nearby looked over to his direction, wondering why the hell this homcanid was running so quickly in pursuit of a room, and then stopping altogether just to _look_ at the doorhandle, it seemed. Delbert did not mind the staring though, and he did not even take a deep breath before he looked through the door window and knocked as he saw Sarah with little Jim in the interior.

The woman's sleepy eyes smiled to him at the window, taking a break from the hushing she made to her newborn, and Delbert carefully let himself in without a fuss. None of his actions had been planned, even back when he decided to make a run for the Maternity Ward... and so he had no idea what to do next, but to keep the hospital room open and just watch Sarah hush her baby to sleep.

This seemed to be enough for him.

Little Jim stirred in that dream-like slumber, his little arms waving in fists as if wanting to hold the air. Sarah then looked up at Delbert to perhaps start a quiet conversation, but the exhausted and saddened features in his face told her everything she needed to hear. Her mouth stayed closed, and her violet-blue eyes seemed to awaken themselves into a bigger display of hope for her friend.

Delbert nodded a 'yes' to her, with his eyes fixed at the lining of the doorway.

Sarah's features locked into a sudden rush of grief, looking to her blankets, with her mind grabbing the closest memory she had of Daisy to secure it in her thoughts forever. The baby still moved as she held him closely, and as she opened her eyes again, Sarah imagined that it was Daisy bringing a bit of cheerfulness and warmth to her from the little soul of Jim Hawkins. Suddenly, Sarah's smile came back again.

"You wanna hold him?" she asked softly.

The homcanid's spectacles gleamed at the light, as he turned to Sarah at the sound of his name.

Whether it was through kindness, or from the interlocking of thoughts between friends... Delbert did not know why he grinned then. Hard to believe, but it seemed that all it took was the holding of a new life to bring back a certain perspective to Delbert's again.

"Hey, j-Jim," the nervous homcanid let the stuttering creep up on him again.

The innocent warmth that came from little Jim Hawkins made all the stress and sadness in Delbert's mind disappear. He could sense that Daisy had lived the remaining years of her life fulfilling a certain promise, believing that death was only an unnecessary fear.

Delbert gazed at the waking baby in his arms and attempted to shush him back to sleep, Sarah admiring that picture from the background, and went over to the nightstand to pick up one the children's books Jonathan had brought from their flat.

"Here, maybe if I read to him he'll go back to sleep..." Sarah gestured for Delbert to bring little Jim closer to the bedside, and she opened the small hardcover book and began to read; Delbert winced as he read the book's title, and listened to Sarah's narration much more admirably.

"_On the clearest of nights... when the winds of the Etherium were calm, and peaceful..."_

For months, Delbert did not speak to anyone, unless it dealt with a loophole in the _Arachni Borealis _research with his dissertation advisors, or the occasional hand raise of a question during an astrophysics class at the university... or the formal rummaging of paperwork and business that dealt with Daisy Egburt's former architecture clients.

He spoke so little, that it was Sarah who urged him to make a dedication at Daisy's funeral and not blend in with the mourning shadows. As much as he tried to hold himself together, and continue in that social environment Daisy and Sarah had brought him into... Delbert could only fall deeper and deeper into his research, trying to close those memories of his cousin safely into a little box, never to be spoken of again.

With all of his studies, and the formal responsibility he had to take over from passing of his cousin, Delbert forgot how it felt to laugh. When small words built up inside him again, the man saw himself speaking again in a more sophisticated tone, feeling insecure half of the time when he spoke at all. He articulated just as he always did, especially with his explanations years later as he finally defended his theory on the_ Arachni Borealis _to the department of Astrophysics at the University of Montressor.

"Y-yes, professor Lively, the abnormality of the_ Borealis_ a few years ago in Tribecia would have brought concern to anyone, but according to records from professor Quincy, this estrangement-- _arrange_ment -- in plasma cells four-point-two-three... and six-point-five-six..." Delbert nervously maneuvered a laser pointing device to the large visual of purple mist above him. "...was not threatening at all. The _Borealis _just encountered an early Solar Flare that year, and it retained its arachnid shape for a few seconds longer than normal..."

In front of him were a small panel of university professors and a pair of well-renowned astrophysicists, who seemed to have a hand supporting their chin with interest at everything this young homcanid tried to explain to them.

Sarah even went to that doctoral lecture for moral support, and she looked over to her son a few minutes into the speech, and saw that he'd fallen asleep. Although this attention span from a four-year-old did not surprise her, there was something about Delbert's presence on that podium - and the sound of his voice - that concerned her.

Perhaps it was the way he fumbled through all of his paperwork, or the way that he spoke in a slight stutter in his voice, that had made Sarah feel that the man defending his doctoral thesis was someone who had been struggling to build up his life again only with the aquaintances he had around him. Ever since Daisy had died, Sarah believed... Delbert had lost that self worth.

The doctoral defense concluded after a couple of hours, and the few student attendees were beginning to stand up from their seats in the lecture hall. Sarah Hawkins watched (and heard) a young Flatulid couple pass her as they went up the stairs to leave, before heading down to the front of the lecture hall to congratulate her friend for that confusing, yet impressive theory.

"So when will we start calling you _Doctor _Doppler, my good sir?" Sarah greeted the homcanid with a tease, holding a tired little Jim by the hand.

Behind his spectacles, Delbert's eyes looked flushed with exhaustion as he was gathering his papers up in the podium, and he was slightly taken aback at seeing Sarah there of all places. By the amazed look on his face, he was surprised she had managed to sit there through the entire lecture, as boring as it must have been.

"Oh, not for another year, I think," He started to roll up a large cosmological map that was laid on the table next to him, "but at least now, I can thankfully await a good amount of sleep."

"Mommy, when's Daddy coming?" the high-pitched, faint voice of Jim as he was wiping the sleepiness out of his face with a hand.

"Don't worry, Jim, we're meeting him at the Magner Café soon." Sarah patted her son lightly on the shoulder admirably, then looked over to Delbert. "You look like you could use some coffee. Care to come along?"

Delbert had finished rolling up the additional charts, and was off to erase the complex symbols and calculations that were on the blackboard behind him.

"Um..._oh, tangents!_--" A bit of the chalk residue fell onto his well-pressed burgundy suit, and Delbert readjusted his spectacles with a finger, and started to wipe the chalk off of his pant legs clumsily.

"Sarah, I'd love to– but... the _Belgravia _comet has been passing by our planetary system for days, and I haven't had the luxury of looking at it yet... because of this presentation... I need to get to my observatory, place the correct combination of coordinates, map out any of its sporadic activity... and attempt to take a pixel perfect photograph of it for my diary–_ – album_."

The overstressed homcanid could actually feel his cheeks turning pink, and he looked over at little Jim, who looked up at Delbert as if the man were about to sprout horns from his snout.

"Can we go now?" The little boy tugged meekly at his mother's hand, wanting to leave the overbearingly quiet and boring lecture hall.

"In a minute, Jim, my goodness!" Sarah settled her boy down with the sincerity in her voice, feeling that Jim was already craving one of those raspberry cookies from Magner. "How about we help Delbert clean up this place first, hmm?"

"Oh, you don't need to," Delbert stepped forward a little, feeling as if his clumsiness were making other people feel forced to assist him. Right then, he just wanted to be alone.

"Are you sure?" Sarah looked at her friend humbly, holding little Jim tighter as he was attempted to let go and run up the stairs, and she placed one hand on her hip. "Listen, couldn't you just take a break from the comets and all that astro-mumbojumbo, and just... just have some coffee? I mean you deserve a break!"

"Sarah, thank you," Delbert huffed his chest a bit with pride, and went back to wiping the chalkboard, "but I'll let you know that this 'mumbojumbo' is going to make me the first Doppler to be published _twice_ in Astronomy Tomorrow for my findings on traveling comets. _Belgravia_ happens to be one of my favorite non-plasmatic phenomena..."

Delbert was passionate with his words, but as he tried lifting the chalkboard to move it back against the wall, he knew that Sarah was feeling the same way about his attitude. He knew she would take his speeches well, but for some reason he couldn't find the courage to look at her and be at level for reasoning, and so to break the tension... Delber just talked some more.

"Did you know it only comes once every_ seventeen years_? The last time it opposed– _was supposed _to come, the sky was overcast with solar flare, so I couldn't--"

"_Okay! _Okay, I understand." Sarah looked at her friend rather sympathetically, and with uncertainty. Maybe it was because she knew Delbert and Jonathan never seemed to hit it off with conversations, but nevertheless she knew it was time for her to leave.

"Well, good luck finding that comet... but eat _something, _Delbert." she said effortlessly, noting her friend's lankier frame.

Sarah finally gave in to Jim's tugging at the hand, and let the little boy lead her up the stairs to the exit doors. She was looking forward to Jonathan's smile and embrace after a full week outside Inglaterr, but as much as she tried to deny it, Sarah couldn't help but worry about Delbert and his declining emotional health.

Delbert stayed in the lecture hall to clean up, hearing nothing in the vast hall but the shuffling of his own papers and materials for another hour or so. In this space he was strangely at peace, letting his recent thoughts wander around like bubbles in the room. He recalled the words he stuttered on during his lecture, the way his Material Science professor's nose made a flatulent sound when hearing the nonexistent word "uncombustiful" escape his tongue, and the way he almost dropped an expensive (and borrowed) cannister of nitrogen when spotting Sarah in the audience... and lanky homcanid cursed himself again.

The stuttering had almost become a permanent mark to this new life without Daisy, and now that this Doctoral title was only a year away, the man knew he was at a turning point. Yes, he had to eat more, like Sarah remarked precisely... but he also felt that he needed to find something to keep himself happy. It was a hunger of a different sort.

As he looked at his own notes and handwriting in those clumps of papers, Delbert wondered what the next step in his life should be. Perhaps a dedication to the Doppler Collection? Maybe get through the classics before his brain cells dried up?

He read through the written calculations on his papers, and then recalled that simple little book that Daisy had given to Sarah as a gift, and the way that Jim - even at the prime of his youth - was deeply fascinated by a book. He noticed the way little Jim opened those eyes of his, listening to his mother tell a story so vivid that whether it was real or not, it created a certain magic between them. An unspeakable bond of love.

Delbert longed for the day when he could have a moment like that. When he could tuck his own son to bed and excite him about a very true tale of adventure his father had gone through...

But then the homcanid snorted that idea away, and shook his head to feel less ridiculous of such a thing. _Children? _he thought, _those little rodents who gurgle and scream and tug if the smallest detail doesn't go their way? Ugh!!_

Whatever in Crescentia's name that could've made this scientifically-spoken man believe such a crazy thing was utterly unknown. Even more so... remembering that while his imagination wandered through the relationship between Tarzan & Jane, and other novelistic couples... those elements of bravery never seemed to help Delbert in his few attempts in romance. Now and then he felt the bruise when Isabel Turnpike - the loveliest homcanid in his highschool physics class - shoved his astronomy textbook against his leaning nose, telling him to stick with what he was _good _at. Delbert liked to pretend that he had kissed a girl countless times, but it wasn't enough to replace the other parts of silly romance. Nothing could replace the real thing. And he longed for that, too.

Suddenly, his mind seemed heavy, and there was no more room in it to dream.

Maybe it was best not to take in too many of those crazy ideas, and Delbert looked back into his writing and concluded that his future was already marked for him in those books in the Doppler Manor. It wasn't to say that he would refuse an opportunity for adventure if it would come... but overall, this young man of a mere twenty seven years already felt that his life was headed on the downward slope, with nothing but good pages to be read.

You would probably think it ironic that a man who had studied so much about the stars would find it much more soothing just watching them through an observatory, instead of exploring them himself... but Delbert did not seem to complain. All of that pain he felt over the loss of Daisy, and of his other family, was finally beginning to settle peacefully into his stomach. He knew that his university colleagues and his handful of friends like Sarah would make sure he didn't go absolutely loony, and he would be just as a good friend to them in return.

It would be many years before Delbert would finally have the stamina to look up from his books once again.


	8. the verdict at Tempestad

_"Lepido... what're ye DOIN'!?" _

_Cassio's voice broke the terrifying confusion over the crowd in that dark ballroom of the Odyssey, watching as the man hiding over the great dome seemed to be losing control of the rope. The rope that Mel's slender body was hanging from._

_The female's attention turned from the voice of Cassio up towards the dome above her, where in the stars she saw the faint silhouette of a man who after a matter of seconds would become her enemy. Right when the rope started to dangle and shake..._

"Cassio Remoni, of the Kefium southward legions of Tempestad..."

Amelia fought the tightness in her stomach as she quickly replaced her mind's thoughts with the voice of the judge, watching as her bruised friend stood up from his chair at the front of the line in the courtroom. Cassio's exhausted, feeble eyes were unable to meet the fierce brown ones of the elderly homcanid's who had called from his bench to the group of miscreants sitting below him. She'll never forget that gray homcanid's worn-like appearance, sitting there on his high seat, with the polished gavel resting below the blissful cupping of his two hands, looking as if he were about to tell the accused line of pirates a harmless little folktale.

He wore a long white mustache, and the top of his head was completely bald, save for the white rim around his scalp. His voice came to the pirates like bitter ice as the small group of pirates and the people seated behind the culprit desks awaited the individual verdicts.

"_Lepido? Lepido, pull me up!" She demanded, clinging to the rope in great fear as the crowd seemed to swim vibrantly below her. Amelia's nocturnal eyes were becoming blurry, from the panic that was brewing in her frame... her stomach... thinking that Lepido would be dropping her twenty feet above the ground as a thief._

_Cassio was pushing himself further into the crowd with as much swiftness as he could master, but as the crowd realized how this unseeable man was one of the culprits, the people around him began to close their masses on him. It wasn't long before Cassio and his two assistants behind him could scramble and leap cat-like back into the edge of the ballroom unnoticed, not taking his nocturnal eyes off of Mel as she hung there over the dome._

"_Wormwood, ge' on the right and climb on te on'e those drapes. We'll get on'e ther lifegliders ourside." Cassio informed his slimy-looking buckaneer next to him, and with one last glance at Mel, he and the other pirate darted for the topmast of the ship. They wouldn't have much time before the lights could be shut on... perhaps no more than another minute. The leader of the pack hoped to get his friends out of there - especially the girl who had done more than enough to prove herself..._

"You and your crew have been found guilty of suppressing the _Grand Odyssey _ship, creating no less than half-a-million dableunites' worth of damage to the Interstellar Militia."

Nobody but Cassio could note how the man made a change in tone with the word 'crew,' but part of him believed it was his mind and memory playing tricks on him. Even then, Cassio had established himself as the leader to his friends, the captain of an extraordinary clan of homfelins in southern Tespestad... the one responsible for all of their actions and outcomes. He could not feel that title being taken away from him, as the judge continued to state the crimes to him.

"You have been declared guilty to the attempted robbery and destruction to dozens of the most valuable Imperial jewelry, including his lordship's most precious collection of opal pearls."

Amelia flinched as she remembered those beautiful gems, as they had been cradled on her dress for only minutes and it brought her such images of food and a luxurious pirate ship for the crew. They would have bought her a ticket to more self respect from her friends, she believed falsely.

_The rope was dangling dangerously to the point of breakage, and Amelia started climbing up the moving rope with her trembling, determined hands, pulling herself up higher and higher from the ground. As she got herself close to the thirty-foot mark from the ground, she could see the tiny sparkling of stars over Lepido's shadow on the outside of the dome. She almost didn't note the odd glint that separated itself from the other glimmering stars, until she realized that Lepido had been holding a cutting knife. Amelia's jade eyes pierced into the dark sky above her, as she saw the getaway lifeglider float into existence over the dome, Genkin's image steering the little boat in just as much a hurry as Lepido..._

"You are responsible for injuring numerous _Odyssey_ officials and placing invited residents in unnecessary turmoil, and of the death of the certain young sentinel by the name of Ezekiel Silver."

"Yer hon'r, _we di'n kill 'im_!" One of the slimy-looking homfelins raised his head next to Cassio on the line, the long dreadlocks in his head glimmering from the sweat of resistance and fear he had experienced those last few days.

A rush of shouting brought an uproar in the courtroom, as many of the _Odyssey_ attendants raised their fists to the pirate's direction, standing up angrily from the dividing wooden barrier of the room. Amelia made a frown as she saw their faces, remembering the ones whose jewels and watches had easily been snatched by her graceful fingertips. She cursed under her breath, and looked back towards the judge's bench. Her friends seemed to be more worried about the final verdict than she was, because for some reason, she already knew what was coming and had accepted it long before they had been brought into Tempestad's Court of Justice.

It was foolish to plead not guilty by now, as there were criminal acts hanging over their necks to be released without punishment. Cassio's face showed that he was ready for the worst, and his fellow colleagues seemed to have taken too much determination away from their worn leader.

"_Lepido, NO! WAIT!!!" Amelia yelled, her arms finding their own agility as she climbed up faster and faster to the skylight dome, telling herself that her friends would wait for her._

_A dangerous slicing to the rope told her otherwise, and the slender homfelin plunged a good ten feet back to where she'd been hanging. Her hair was now a flowing wild mop over her face, and the lovely gown she wore was now nothing but heavy layers of fabrics, pulling Amelia more and more closely to the solid ground. As she looked below, the crowd people were acknowledging something finally above them, which sounded like a woman in mid-air... the one who had stolen the pearls that were now falling onto each of their heads._

"_Mel, over here!" Wormwood called at her side, and a frightened Amelia looked to her left for the familiar voice she couldn't locate through the panic brewing in her throat. "Swing the rope t' the chandelier, Mel, alight? Ah'll swing the lamp o'er to you..."_

The young homfelin knew that punishment was part of all piracy, that now and then, one crew member would be left behind... and she could not take the matter personally. As much as Amelia hated to fall into that trap, she had grown too close to these men throughout those years, and even now she found it difficult to realize she could not stay close to the ones she had sworn to stand by through blood and freedom. There was no such friendship when it came to survival.

Amelia's mind heard the failure of the mission like a string of dominoes collapsing.

_She didn't have time to consider Wormwood's plan, but as she felt that the rope was about to rip completely off, the woman made a single thrust of the rope with all of her force towards the left. Wormwood was at the edge of the long drape near the chandelier, his claws keeping himself held and secure. The moment Mel swung across, he jumped and grabbed a strong hold to one of the chandelier's archs... swinging the entire body of the lamp to Mel's advantage. _

_Amelia made a great acrobatic leap in the dark, praying to get a hold of a brass arch in the lamp safely. As she clung to the delicate metal bar, Amelia could breathe again... watching as the rope remained as a few strands of string that held itself together over the depths of the crowd._

_Wormwood stumbled slightly as he regained his grip on the other side of the swinging chandelier, and the two friends hung tightly, balancing the giant lamp that was securing their very lives in the dark ballroom. The crowd below them did not need any light to feel there was a commotion coming up above them, and they heard the female homfelin growl through her cat-like fangs. _

"_They left..." She muttered angrily to Wormwood, as the two gracefully placed themselves atop of the chandelier's brass holdings. "Lepido... he was going to KILL--"_

"_Calm ye' down, Mel." Wormwood was busy trying to analyze the weight balance of this fragile lamp that was holding them, and Amelia's face was infuriated from the abandonment she had just witnessed. She pictured that ignition flame from Genkin's lifeglider speeding away like a star over the dome, and before she could even bite her lip with anger... the lights of the ballroom flickered once. Just once._

"That is enough!" The wooden gavel banged alongside the judge's firm hand three times, keeping his voice loud and clear to the entire courtroom. He looked over the files sitting on his desk and picked up the one with the name _William 'Wormwood' Blake_, opening it promptly. "According to your debrief, Mr. Blake, they said you admitted to killing _two_ of the guards during the ship's blackout period?"

Wormwood replaced his frustration and looked over to the judge sternly through his greasy dreadlocks in front of his face. He was still enraged that they were being accused of a crime they did not commit. "Tha's correct, sir."

"Wonderful." The judge merely said in sarcasm, flipping the file shut in one motion, before continuing to speak to the seven pirates once more. There was an unspeakable edge of sympathy that came over his face, however, when he looked at young Amelia, but his speech turned to Cassio's attention.

"I understand, Mr. Remoli, that the real perpetrators to Ezekiel Silver had fled on your crew's lifeglider, and the police force is on their trail... your friends couldn't have left the galaxy on that ship. When they are found I will pronounce their prison sentences myself, but in the meantime... I am holding you _all_ responsible for the sentinel's death, by means of the entire _Grand Odyssey _getting sabotaged and placed under the favor of you and your pirates."

_There was a chorus of gasps from below the crowd, then silence as the darkness came again. And almost as if a rush of soundwaves had broken into the ballroom, the voices of a hundred people grew into a panicking frenzy. Everyone clearly wanted the lights back on._

_Amelia could see the action below her, as people were become more and more flustered from the two figures on the chandelier, and the girl knew she would eventually have to reveal her presence with dignity to them. At least Wormwood would be there to fight, too. _

"_Le's make a swing back t' the drapery." Wormwood's seething whisper of a voice told her. "Then we'll dash o'er to Cassio. He's gotte 'nother boat comin'..."_

_Rigorously, the two swung the chandelier in a careful manner towards the drapes Wormwood had reached from. It was like moving her eyes forward and back to a deadly fall below a dock as Amelia felt the slopes get steeper with each swing. At the moment Wormwood jumped for the drape, the female homfelin held herself tightly onto the chandelier to not break its balance. The beautiful gown she was still wearing was now torn at the sides by rough brass edges of the chandelier... no more concern to her than if she had worn a potato sack. Amelia ripped her dress from the waist downward to give herself more acrobatic dynamic, and placed the extra fabric on the top of the lamp._

"_Quickly, Mel! Ah reckon th' lights'll come back!" Wormwood warned, as some people nearby seemed to be hearing their conversation with concern more for themselves. The male pirate could see a couple of them... guards... approaching the general direction of the drapes._

_Amelia was going to swing herself easily with one thrusting maneuver, being the space between the lamp and Wormwood's arm about ten feet easily. It would have worked out perfectly, and without flaw._

_But then the lights flickered back on... permanently._

"My decision goes by the rules of Tempestad's Judiciary system, Mr. Remoli, stating that _every_ legitimate pirate captain will be bound to his death sentence, and that every one of his crew members of age are to watch the event at the gallows to reevaluate their own routes... over a prison sentence of five to ten years."

Only Amelia seemed to blink at the saying of the verdict, where Cassio and the members took those words like a mere question instead of a permanent scar on their lives. The man, who had once rescued her from a life of precioius gold cages and beauty, was no longer to going to be with her to embark on adventures. The woman's eyes narrowed into a steady cat's, not wanting to take in everything the judge had said.

Cassio long knew he would be considered the fateful culprit, and with a mere glance to his crew and at lovely Mel, he spoke in a soft voice. "Yer 'onor, ah' take full responsibi'ly ter this mission, but ah' don' want meh crew to see me hang."

"I'm afraid that is out of my hands, Mr. Remoli--"

In a sudden creaking of the two entrance doors, more guests walked into the hearing... at what seemed to be the most unnecessary time at the courtroom... by the looks of the judge. A tall, male homfelin with a cone-shaped torso and a prominent gray military suit had walked in, and a few of the guards gave a salute to him immediately. Many people's heads began to turn, as more homfelins with exquisite attire walked into the room behind that man, one of them being a slender woman with a rather overbearing fur coat and bright red lipstick. The look in her dark green eyes seemed to be in mourning as she saw the girl pirate in the stands.

Amelia would have looked away from the entrance then, but as she saw her parents and one of her older brothers come into the courtroom and stand aside from the door... she saw that Mr.Arrow had walked in behind them, and it told her everything she needed to know. A tasteless feeling in her mouth made her swallow, looking over to the judge and hoping her prison sentence would be the maximum ten years.

_The girl's entire body seemed to buckle at the sight of the people below her, unable to hear Wormwood's yelling at her side. _

_Guards began to tear down the drapery where the male homfelin was safely stationed on, and the man had no choice but to leap back onto the chandelier, adding the dangerous weight fall onto the hanging lamp without warning... and the metal chain holding it to the ceiling broke into pieces. The two friends were making thirty-foot drop below the crowd, as it seemed, but as Wormwood caught Mel's hand in assurance, it almost clicked to her that they needed to jump off the chandelier at only the precise moment of impact... and then run._

_Women in precious clothing and scattered pearls on their hair caught these two acrobats with unnecessary shock, backing away unceremoniously as if they were animals. The pieces of scrapmetal and glass that used to be a lovely chandelier created a stir among the crowd, and almost nobody had time to look over to the pirates' as they separated and leapt among the numerous ballroom guests, towards the exits. _

"Colonel, you're late." On his podium, the judge glanced over to Hugo Smollet skeptically, but with understanding, knowing that the Smollet family had not stepped into a courtroom for a very long time. The elderly homcanid promptly went through his folders on the desk and found the one entitled _Amelia 'Mel' Smollet_, and opened it generously.

"My sincerest apologies, your honor. We had some business concerning another family member of ours, but my wife Winifred and I are very much at your service."

The man in the gray uniform bowed respectfully to the judge, and continued to explain himself with his assertive and yet eloquent voice. He did not take notice of Amelia as quickly as his wife did, and his cat-like whiskers took in the tense air around him.

"As you know, we're here to claim responsibility to one of your accused pirates on the stand."

People in the crowd began to whisper and lean their heads over to the pirates in the stand, all of a sudden causing a wave of interest at the only girl sitting among them.

"_Mel, take the pistol an' get yer way inter the corridor!" Wormwood was trying to get out of the grip of many spectators surrounding him, tossing a small plasma pistol over to Amelia's free hand as she started to sprint with her long legs out of the ballroom.. "Ah'll hold some o' them off for ye'..." The man's voice trailed off, as he kept himself from getting restrained by the two guards on his tail._

_Amelia heard a few punches being thrown at her friend, and looked behind her and saw that Wormwood had knocked out a male guest, holding another small pistol against the two guards, who had seconds before drawn out their nightsticks guns to control him. She didn't need to see clearly to know that her friend had fired shots at police officials, but she wanted to block those screams and moans out of her mind._

_The young pirate thought she had been free from restraint as she made it to the hallway, but as she looked back to locate Wormwood, a thin metal wire lassoed itself onto Amelia's frame from one side, and she almost tripped from the force that had pulled from it. As she stirred and tried to breathe from the secure wrap, she met the eyes of Cornelius Arrow, holding the end of the metal wire from a small bar contraption held on his hand. The gadget looked like a box for measuring tape, but the wire seemed to take a life of its own as it coiled twice around Amelia's arms and waist. It carried an energy that was draining Amelia of her strength._

"_Let... me... go," she demanded faintly, trying to pry her way from the wire with her free fingers. One hand still had the pistol, and she carefully tried to aim it at Arrow's arm, as more people and guests came slowly to help the situation._

"_Do you have any idea how much the Colonel and his wife have missed you, Miss Smollet?" The First Lieutenant tried to give her an understanding look, letting her know he was not planning to hurt the girl. "I don't want them to see what you've turned into... please, just try to cooperate..."_

"Yes, Colonel, the one who according to the records... seemed to have borrowed your wife's name for little bit of fun. I understand that you've been on the search for her for almost two years now?" The judge spoke in a conversational tone to the man sitting across the courtroom from him, and the pirates looked over at Amelia with loyal-hearted faces, knowing exactly how she felt.

The two men spoke about Amelia's mishaps as if nobody else had been in the room overhearing them... more importantly, as if Amelia herself had practically disappeared into thin air. She looked towards the ground, feeling completely humiliated and broken in spirit.

"Her crimes have placed her in a very difficult position with the law, Colonel, and she may need to serve prison time for the damages she has caused to the military. I suppose you can agree with me on this."

"Absolutely, your honor. But let me point out that she is below the age of twenty-one, therefore still _underage_ according to Tempestad law, and that my position as father declares a say over her level of punishments. A girl underage cannot serve time in prison unless her guardian or parent feels it is the most necessary course of action... isn't that correct sir?"

_Amelia snarled at the pyedrad and sharply fired her plasma pistol to his arm holding the wire box, and bits of gravel from the injury caused the man to fall into a state of confusion. Instantly, the metal wire loosened itself from the woman's frame, and she regained herself into a faster run into the hallway, trying to find the nearest vent to dive into. Now and then she would pass an innocent bystander of a guest, and before they had any time to think, she would jump over them in a somersault and continue her run._

_These tricks were not new to Amelia; her skills tumbling made her way through the most troublesome situations alongside Cassio and his crew. But somehow she was not thinking clearly anymore... her life was almost shattered by a rope and a chandelier within minutes of each other, and nobody cared. Wormwood would not even have come unless Cassio had given him that responsibility. She ran, not conceiving that Lepido left her there to die, but feeling that he did not have a choice but to leave his friend behind. He had been afraid, too._

_She kept believing that small inch of hope of Cassio having a lifeglider stolen and ready wherever Wormwood led her, pretending that a crowd of guests had not seen her nor recognized her face. She ran because it was all she could do._

"It is," replied the judge conceivably, still going over Amelia's records briefly in the file. "And I have managed to put together a reasonable punishment for your daughter, Colonel, that I believe will be more strengthening for her character."

The judge returned a glance over to the Colonel across the room, but then turned over at Amelia and looked at her square in the eye to reveal her sentence.

"Miss Amelia Smollet, you will be serving as a delinquent at the Juvenile Hall base in Columnia, where after two years of discipline and character-building, you will transfer your five-year sentence towards volunteer service work at the Interstellar Military Academy, to repay the damages from this particular incident. The Juvenile Hall's code of conduct states that no family member of any kind can visit a delinquent during the first year, and as such, First Lieutenant Cornelius Arrow, has been assigned to evaluate your progress during that time. This will be your sentence to carry out. You may be escorted out of the courtroom now."

"_No!_" came the girl's voice, which she had only meant to say mentally, but her strength made her stand up from the chair. She refused to even look at Arrow.

"Sir, I want to hear where the others are going."

"Young lady, those punishments do not concern you." The judge replied in that professional tone, but Amelia only regarded it as man speaking to a little child. "Now you will leave the room quietly, or I will have to alter the punishment even further."

Amelia's ears twitched near the end the judges words, her hands trembling as she could not even bare to look at the other pirates on the line. She was not being allowed to stay and hear the fate of her friends, and as a guard took her away from the stands, she almost resisted his grip onto her shoulder. She refused to look away from her friends, from Wormwood and the other, and their sense of hope towards her took Amelia by surprise. All she could do was pass Cassio sadly and barely touch his hand as the guard pushed her along to meet with her parents.

The glamorous Winifred Smollet gave a cry of happiness and rushed to hug the precious daughter she had lost for a long time, and Amelia just shut her eyes tightly with sadness, letting the whispers and talk of the spectators consume the bitterness in her mind. She wanted to disappear from this confinement of authority that her father created, and of that delicacy her mother never seemed to stop divulging to her. She wanted to be free from them.

_But the lights were on. Things no longer seemed that simple. _


	9. the lone adventurous Hawkins

**NOTE:** **One more chapter after this, and I'll finally be up to the well-known events in the movie. Again, I don't own Disney's characters, or RLS's story, but the others I carry dear to my heart. R&R!**

Jim Hawkins waved in victory as he soared across the Finish Line the second time with his turn around, being the young boy of eight, and his desire for attention at its peak. Sarah cheered for her son with a giant flag waving over her head, the patterns commemorating her home in Columnia... where her extended family were distantly feeling the honor of their little relative.

Although the young Hawkins did not get the First Place mark, the boy was nevertheless beaming because had just beat his long-standing neighbor – and once Junior Champion – on the annual Solar Surfing Competition held on the open canyon valleys of Montressor. People cheered and clapped for the dozens of the young racers as they returned to their respective families and supporters. There were many races going on throughout the day, with children at different age levels competing for many colorful medals on their suits.

The boy slowly brought his surfer into a yielding stop on the orange sand and jumped off with brisk landing on his boots, taking off his helmet while rushing to a guaranteed bear-like hug from his smiling mother.

"You _did it, Jim!! _You finally beat Constance!" Sarah wiped a little sand off of her son's cheek to kiss him, and Jim involuntarily made a disgusted look.

The young woman's long hair was braided tightly along her back, and while she continued to fuss over Jim's dirty face teasingly, the boy just propped himself down on the ground again to unbuckle his surfing boots.

"I know mom! Didn't I tell you? All I needed was a new ignition wire and some new fiber glass...and I flew past her so fast she didn't even know– ... ow... _mom_...!"

The boy's story was interrupted as he tried shooing away his mother's hands while wiping his forehead from the orange dirt. This seemed to be Sarah's pet peeve, having been the successful manager of an very clean Benbow Inn for some years now.

"Jim Hawkins, you were mag_ni_ficent, if I do see--see?-- _say_ so myself."

The boy looked up, smiling with the anticipation of seeing his father behind his mother's shoulder, and wondering what he'd brought him from that voyage he took to some planet whose name Jim couldn't even attempt to pronounce.

But his smile felt slightly short, as he watched the odd homcanid friend of his mother's stroll almost comically towards him. Jim was not trying to act unhappily to Delbert Doppler - who looked pale to the thought of spending too much time in an observatory - but the trouble was that he always tended to show up to his special events before his father could make the appearance. And no matter how much he tried, the enthusiasm could never be the same the second time.

It was actually Sarah's idea to bring Delbert along to this special event of her son's, and throughout the entire racing day, the man could see her looking over the crowd to try and spot Jonathan... as he had promised to make it to the Junior rounds as soon as he returned from his business trip that day. The wrinkles on Sarah's forehead seemed to establish her distress more than she wanted to admit , as Delbert constantly saw his friend trying to hold up many tasks under one roof... when it should have been two people sharing those responsibilties. The homcanid knew better than to dive into those issues, but now and then it was Sarah who insisted he tag along for the sake of her son, and have the boy get a better shadowing of the sciences he loved so much.

And for the sake of Sarah's happiness, Delbert would keep her company.

"Keep this up, and you'll be the youngest space voyager in the entire Etherium--!"

"Delbert, quit teasing him... he's still got a long way to go," Sarah patted her son's hair lovingly, while he tried to shake his head in embarrassment.

"I _know_..." the homcanid shrugged meekly fiddling with his glasses, "...but with that speed and agility, who can imagine such extinct-- dis_tincti_ons to come?"

The Doctor gave a little punch of courage to the young boy's shoulder, as Sarah rolled her eyes in amusement.

Jim didn't know whether to snort a laugh or just scoff, as this looney astronomer always seemed to speak to the boy as if he were still three years old. It made it sound as if Jim did not know there would be years and years of hard work and training to become a space voyager, and the boy could not believe how naive a space scientist like Delbert could be sometimes. Honestly, that man spent way too much time in his observatory. And as much as the boy was polite, Jim tried to avoid overhearing an astrophysics conversation with the man at all costs.

"Um... Mom, I'm gonna go say hi to Constance and Joyce."

"Okay... don't be long, you have to wash up before dinner tonight!" Sarah called out to Jim as he scurried off to meet his former racing rival.

Delbert watched as Sarah sighed towards her little boy in the distance, hearing her sigh with adoration. That parental wish that captured the Doctor's imagination now and then just crossed his mind again... and he dismissed it as quickly when seeing some squid-like children pour buckets of water playfully over their father and scattering about like thieves.

"Sarah, I don't think sighing at your son is going to make him grow slower." Delbert quickly moved his arm and avoided that trademark elbow nudge Sarah would usually give him. "That boy's going to be a remarkable young man."

The Doctor moved over to the solar surfer and examined the contraption as if it were a motionless space creature, poking it in a few places.

"Incredible... with plasma ignition and solar-powered scale flags. A well-designed solar surfer... Jim _built _this?"

"Yep." Sarah wiped the dirt off from her dark green dress, and lifted her arms out in a relaxing gesture. Delbert could feel that the day had been quite long for her and her son, but he couldn't help but feel there was a bit of disappointment in her voice. "Jonathan was supposed to help him try it out, remember? But he had that dang trading mission in Zeplorah..."

Sarah's voice trailed off, leaving Delbert to wonder if she had wanted to say more, but instead left her friend to keep those comments to himself. The man just stood there looking ahead, watching as Jim started talking enthusiastically to a thin teenaged girl in her navy blue racing suit streaked with dirt. Delbert did not understand how a boy's innocence would seem so fragile in a family like Sarah's, but up until that moment... hearing that sadness in her voice... it seemed that this boy was the only real thing keeping her life together. Slightly rubbing his calves with his feet awkwardly, the Doctor reminded himself how utterly stressful a relationship would be... and that nobody would want to endure that.

Without even suggesting his help, the two friends picked up the solar surfer and started carrying Jim's prized contraption over to the cable trolley station, where the cars would pick up the residence and their luggage to points on the Montressor canyons, all the way to the residential quarters near the Benbow Inn.

"So what is this about a _racing rival _that Jim was going on about?" Delbert brought up the new subject with a sincere amount of interest, and the woman grinned casually.

"That, my dear friend Delbert... is Constance Crane."

Sarah pointed to a young teenaged girl with long strawberry blonde hair held messily into a ponytail, talking to little Jim in the distance and high-fiving him with the utmost respect of sportsmanship. There was a smaller version of Constance in the form of her little sister, Joyce... who was a classmate of Jim's in school and always seemed to tag along for her big sister's solar surfing competitions. Joyce seemed much more interested in the maintenance of her sister's surfing contraption, wiping the sand off of it and flapping the ultralight sail for security, while Jim spoke with great enthusiasm about the race with her sister.

"Jonathan and I got to know the Cranes right after Jim came back from the hospital. They're really nice people, but man... ever since Jim saw their eldest girl soar across our parking lots to provide babysitting service, that boy's been wanting to prove something to her."

Delbert raised an eyebrow, both in an interest and delightful concern to a topic he himself seemed to be a stranger to. "Uh... but Sarah, isn't he still... a bit-- _young _for those kind of thoughts--"

Sarah broke into pure laughter and warmth, she could barely hold the surfer straight from her side as she carried it.

"Ah, Delbert! It isn't like that at all. She's done a lot of babysitting for Jonathan and me, and Jim's just gotten really close to her and that intense solar surfing she does. The girl's a sweetheart and has been showing him the ropes... I think it's sweet he has this little crush on her... but trust me, _nothing's _gonna happen. Connie is fifteen years old with a very --affectionate -_- _boyfriend named Travis."

Delbert made a teasing sound of "yechh" almost in the echo of a young homcanid who once had girl crushes of his own, with little success in them. But he smiled and made Sarah take a break from that stressed nature she used to place herself into now more than ever. Nothing seemed to threaten that special relationship she carried with that little boy in front of her eyes, walking to them to help carry his own filthy boots and smaller equipment to the cable wire.

"..._Dad!_"

Sarah winced and looked over her shoulder to the racetracks, in the direction where she heard Jim's excited voice. The next thing Delbert knew, Jim was dropping all of his gear onto the sand and running barefoot over to a buff, exhausted-looking figure that strolled alongside a hill on the other side of the racing base. Jonathan's face was blurry from the distance, but by the way he carried a huge tote bag on his back, the Doctor could easily tell it had been a long journey.

Setting his totebag on the ground, Jonathan welcomed the embrace his little boy gave him, despite the sand-filthy suit still being worn from the race, and Jim did not even wait until his father set him down to talk about the long day of racing. The boy trotted along happily, as he carried his gear over to his mother, looking ahead to her and smiling his very best smile.

"Well, I-- I guess the man of the hour made it right on time, didn't he?"

Delbert attempted to sound positive about Jonathan's late-coming, seeing how happy the little boy seemed to be, and Sarah just taking it in without a blinking eye. Her mouth fell agape... with either happiness or genuine unexpectedness, Delbert couldn't tell, and all she seemed to desire was to continue carrying the large solar surfer and pretend that her husband had not appeared from those shadows like a hero.

Jonathan had made so many promises to her, and not showing up to Jim's annual solar race was one of those things Sarah carried dearly to her heart. From the moment this boy took his first steps, she had almost made it a living hope that Jonathan would bring himself closer to the family and the business of the Benbow Inn, not worrying too much about trade. She had desired so much to have the two most important people in her life become the closest of companions... it was almost like a humiliation at the way Jonathan would appear, as if out of thin air... to redeem himself.

This sort of thing happened on a handful of occasions, which included Jonathan's own birthday that was planned as a surprise party... and Sarah could hardly brush off the pain it had felt, putting a reluctant little Jim to bed and escorting Delbert, the Cranes, and a few other guests out of the Inn with an untouched cake. She remembered the mascara streaming down her cheeks as she waited up for her husband long into the night, until finally supposing he extended his stay abroad... and fell asleep on the cold couch with her tears.

The funny thing was that Jonathan would admit he was working too hard, but all for the good cause of the family. She would say to him (with the minimal raising of her voice, to let Jim sleep peacefully) that just as much work was needed at the Benbow Inn... and that if he were not careful, he would be missing out on the best years in their son's life.

Delbert could feel a certain tension brewing between this family, and while he was not somebody to question the ideals of love... he sadly concluded that the little Hawkins would be suffering the most from any given outcome. Still... in the same way she had raised his hopes after the loss of a loved one, Delbert would be there to mend Sarah's frail heart with care, and help it beat back to life one more time.

And that day came when Jonathan Hawkins abandoned the Benbow Inn.

It wasn't the casual voice that hurt so much... as he told her that he had found a permanent business in a merchants' goldmine planet Sarah eventually forgot the name of. She remembered the screams that morning, her voice that had grown stiff and hoarse from it all, and the smell of the fresh coffee that Jonathan had brewed himself to take with him on a travel mug. Sarah picked up the heavy, worn tote bag with all of her strength and shoved it into Jonathan's frame, telling him to go find his fortunes and to never set foot inside her home again.

It wasn't his conformity that hurt Sarah that day, either, when he simply threw the bag over his shoulder and carried the travel mug with his free hand, looking at his wife with an edge of sympathy that haunted her. His eyes gazed at her, loving her as if she should have known a day like this was going to come, sooner or later.

None of that surpassed the pain that Sarah felt when he walked out of the Inn, out into the dock for his own adventure... and never made a mention of Jim at all.


	10. the Miroid in Juvenile Hall

1The grief-stricken homfelin took one solid glance at the worn, fifteen-foot square bunker that was to be her home for the next two years, her eyes trying to overlook the scratches and the dents that marked the frustration of past young inmates like herself. The large peach-colored tote bag (compliments of her mother) seemed to grow heavier on her back as she stood there, along with the reptilian guard who growled firmly at her side, practically pushing her into her new room assignment. As the barred door slid itself shut from behind her, Amelia bit her lip and did not bother to turn around to curse at that man.

Amelia could not grasp how lucky she was, because she couldn't bare seeing the faces of her loyal crew being hung by a rope to the neck. She always felt she should have been there in the courtroom at their side to the very end, and seeing Cassio's pale face shedding droplets of sweat was the last thing she remembered from that trial.

It was a single room fit for a prisoner... with one table, one small chair implanted to the floor, and tiny rogue moths flying around the crusted ceiling to keep her company. She stared at the steel cot with one mattress and a thin blanket, and wondered if sleeping on the floor would be any warmer. With an exhausted sigh from a long journey and a long year ahead of her, Amelia let her tote bag drop to a thump on the ground.

She had barely begun to unpack her uniformed collar shirts that afternoon when a familiar visitor, as promised, came to see how she was settling. Amelia grimaced as the his stone knuckles tapped on the concrete wall next to her bunker for a greeting, as if she couldn't hear them through the bars.

"And how is the new Juvenile Hall resident settling in?" The man's low tone of voice pierced through her stomach, and she threw him a sickening look. "Taking her time, I've noticed."

"Go to hell," she mumbled, her emerald eyes thinning daringly at him, and the man flinched before clearing his throat to speak again.

"Miss, I would advise you to change that attitude, as it will be getting you on the wrong foot. Your father specifically said..."

"Mr. Arrow, I don't give a fucking _meteorite _about my dimwit of a father," Amelia grabbed a beige jacket from her bag with a fist and thought about throwing it to the bars. "And I would appreciate it if I never had to see your gravel face again."

"I see, ma'am," Cornelius Arrow placed a hand into his red military jacket and took out a pocket book and a fountain pen, "but I am afraid you are already setting yourself on the wrong foot here."

He made a quick pen mark in his little book, and quickly closed it in a sweep.

"That's one demerit, and I'll inform the quarters that you'll have no supper tonight."

"WHAT?" Amelia's emerald grew back to their original, if not slightly larger size. "But I just stepped off of a bloody _thirty-seven hour_--"

"Let me remind you that I'm here to assure that your attitude takes a turn for the better, Miss Smollet."

"Where's the Arialfone in this place?" Amelia seemed to ask herself, throwing down the jacket and approaching the bars, with a hiss coming like a cat to the man of stone before her. "I'll send word to the Colonel, you piece of chiseled work."

"Only after the first week may you have the privilege to communicate with anyone. Until then, it is_ you_ who'll be doing any work around here" Mr. Arrow did not seem to mind the bars that were between him and the shrewd feline. "And didn't you tell me just a moment ago that you didn't give a... 'a fucking meteorite...' about the Colonel Smollet?"

The homfelin spat onto the man's newly polished shoes below her and did not manage to clean her chin with a sleeve. Her wavy brown hair seemed to cover her eyes eerily, and anyone else would have backed away at the grotesque mannerisms of this woman, but Mr. Arrow could not help but be amazed at how graceful that mannerism came.

He took out his pocket book again just as calmly, and made another mark onto it firmly, but with great annoyance. The pyedrad made a slight cough.

"Correction...'Miss Smollet will not be having supper for the next_ two _days...'"

"You've got to be _joking_, you colossus, _thick-headed_..." Amelia was beginning to show her cat-like fangs through the gaps of the barred door.

"...and that lovely artwork on my shoe just brought you another demerit, ma'am. Have a good afternoon." Closing his pocketbook politely, the man gave a hint of a grin to his stubborn little project and turned on his heel to leave.

"I'll fucking _EAT _those demerits of yours, Mr. Arrow, you hear me!? Mr. Arrow!? MISTER ARROW!!"

But the bulky man just kept on walking in a military grace, hearing the woman's voice echo throughout the tunnel-like quarters and ignoring it with much intent.

"Your reformation training will begin tomorrow at 0-800 hours. I suggest you get some rest."

"_BUGGER!_"

And as Arrow continued to walk, he felt a scrunched-up sock hit his shoulder, as if it had been hurled to his general direction. Immediately, the chorus of the inmates that resided in the quarters alongside Amelia's began to laugh at this amusing commotion, mumbling things about 'this pathetic, feisty girl' that had just entered their confined midst.

All the pyedrad could think of... as he straightened his jacket and noticed the staining spit on his shoe... was that he'd damn well better get a promotion out of this assignment. Cornelius Arrow would not be navigating the Etherium so much in the upcoming year, and that itself would make the days drag longer.

The unformidable Arrow kept his word and left the young woman without any supper for the first couple of days... but as her keen sense of smell noted along the inmate quarters, she would have been better off starving or eating rotten fruit. Every morning, a noisy fog horn would wake the young inmates up for drill training and exercises, being treated as if they were rejects to the Interstellar Academy, who were just biding their time to make it out and live off like free-spirits once again. Amelia despised this place, with the walls so bare and lifeless, that she now and then missed the music and chatter of the Blind Pig.

It was impossible to make friends in this place, since Amelia always found herself among a vast pool of troublemakers (of all species) between the imbecilic eleven-year-olds and the irresponsible ones of twenty-one. The closest to building a friendship that anyone would get to in this Juvenile Hall was the sharing of their stories between classes and drills, and they all seemed to deal with an ache for adventure. Too many of them were runaways, and that didn't seem to surprise the young homfelin, each one trying to find their own fun in a vast galaxy with the vulnerability and stupidity of their age.

"So wha's yer story?" A curvy toad-like creature with very pink cheeks once asked her, as they waited in line for their daily rationing of breakfast, consisting of one bottled purpjuice, and a nutrients bar eaten by hand.

"I killed my best friend with a plasma grenade," Amelia replied flatly, with her hair tamed back with a wavy ponytail. Mr. Arrow shook his head with displeasure at the corner of the food line.

That seemed to shut the amphibid up throughout the rest of the line, but as the girls got their meal, the creature eased up a bit and said... "Ah just stole supplies... for me dad. He's an underground mechanic, ye see..."

Amelia couldn't count down the days any faster, to get the hell out of that bloody storytelling school and be a free woman – even if it did mean four years of service to the Naval Academy.

Music and laughter did not seem to exist here, but there was education, and teachers... who probably longed for an early retirement rather than dealing with the hopeless generation. More than once did a stupid youngster decide to pick a fight with their philosophical views, getting not only a demerit but also do the most unwanted tasks such as cleaning the public bathrooms every night for a week.

"Teach', what the hell are dimensional geometric drawin's gonner do ter get me food?" A teenaged boy asked the middle-aged female professor, with crustacean antennae flickering over his head in frustration.

"Well, er... dear boy, if you could get some sense as to what a _long_ term education could do for you, and your potential family..."

"Long t– Yer mean I gotter learn _more o' _these bloody numbers? Bah."

And the rest of the adolescents continued to throw crumples of paper in the room, laughing at the nativity of this woman, who clearly came from a more privileged background to say idealisms like that. Amelia made sure to laugh herself, throwing a paper aircraft accurately to the teacher's forehead and watching her face grow red in color as she said "DEMERIT!" Her future would be whatever she wanted it to be, and for all Amelia knew it would not have to involve wearing heavy ballgowns to gain some respect

Demerits seemed a useless sense of punishment, since there wasn't anything else for these rejects to go except work in the mining shafts, or clean the kitchens and bathrooms, and as each visiting day went by, Amelia knew by the sad faces that these children's parents refused to deal with their troubles at home.

Perhaps that's why her own parents did not fuss about placing her there... because their little angelic girl... the delicate image of her mother no longer existed. As the first-year anniversary of her stay in Juvenile Hall came in the blink of an eye, her parents made the day recognizable with one small letter, delivered by Mr. Arrow:

_To my little Amelia..._

_The Admiral, your brothers, and I have sincerely hoped that this year has been an educational one for you, and my dear, I apologize that we did not send you a birthday present this year. It's silly, really... but during the time you were missing, we would fall into such mourning on your birthday, writing you letters to so many places... and the year when we finally know where you are, we... oh never mind. The important thing is... is that you are _safe_ there, and the First Lieutenant Arrow is taking good care of you. Your brothers are doing very well... Dominic is back in Tempestad for a short amount of time, keeping me company in this quiet house before he is off for naval duty again. Raul is in a regiment base somewhere north of Inglaterr, still seeing that girl of his... goodness knows they should plan a wedding before the Armada gets any closer. And Horatio is...well... continuing to do a marvelous job as a sentinel, as you may already know. Do not take this in hatred, darling, but these _gentlemen_ you got involved with... they were not good people, and I hope that one day you will understand why._

_Your father and I love you very much, and we cannot wait to visit you._

_Happy Anniversary, my beautiful darling. _

_Winifred Aurelia Smollet_

The young Smollet stared at that letter with a sad, almost sympathetic eye for her mother, wondering how long it may be before her mother stops being so delicate in her writing. Amelia refused to ever be that blind, and associate herself with a person who had called Cassio and the others as criminals instead of friends.

A tear fell from her face, knowing that it had been over a year since the Cassio's death sentence must've been carried out. That was her moment of mourning, and she already felt like she had been abandoned from the closest people she had ever known in those voyages alongside Tempestad. The past year had been nothing but hard work and mindless education, that the only moments when she cried herself to sleep was when she remembered she had never said goodbye to the friend who had saved her from a life of emptiness. Someone who made her laugh for the first time in ages.

You would believe it to have been a dream, if one spare moment you would have woken up to the small flickering of a light over your bed, so tiny that it must have been one of those glowing arachnidites hanging from their delicate web on the ceiling.

Amelia stirred by that dim little light that glowed into a tint of light blue into her surroundings, so faint that it did not reach past the fabric of her cot as she moved over sleepily figure out of it was a bug. With a careful tap of her finger, she tried to move the little floating light away from her and get back into the darkness of sleep, but the light did not move. Instead it seemed to glow slightly brighter from the first tapping of Amelia's finger.

The half-awake homfelin tapped the little light again, this time with determination to move this moth away from her... but suddenly the entire bunk seemed to fill itself with more bright blue light and it made Amelia feel like the sunrise had arrived earlier in the Juvenile quarters. She slowly sat herself up on the cot, wondering how this little blue light were floating in front of her, without any string or any wings.

She carefully touched the bead of light again, and immediately the blue light expanded wildly out into the young woman's bunk, causing her to form a mix of panic and confusion. Could the guards in the quarters have seen this flickering light in her room? Amelia cupped the small floating bead with her hand... and the light gently settled itself back into it's original speck, no bigger than a coin.

Amelia gasped, realizing that this was not part of a dream after all. This bead of light she held in her cupped hands was a Miroid... a small contraption for secret communication, where the intended receiver could easily listen to the sender's genuine voice message by tapping on the bead three times. It was a finger-printing mechanism. Amelia had not seen a Miroid message in years, and the only people she knew who had mastery of such a complicated art was her brother, and... someone who was supposed to...

_Darlin' Mel._

The familiar voice emerged from the bead, and it sparked all of Amelia's fur with excited shock. No, it couldn't be... he was... he was supposed to be... but Amelia's ears kept listening more intently into the whispering voice that came from the bead, with small tears forming in her eyes.

_How's me girl doin' in tha' Juvenile place? Ah'm not sure how long ih'll take yeh ter get this, bu' ahr wanted ter tell ye tha' ahm alright. _

Amelia could pinpoint Cassio's voice from many yards, so there was no doubt on her mind that the voice was his. Had it been some sort of trick, his voice would not have sounded so calm and brisk as it came to her from the bead.

_Ol' Genk an' Leps found them ways back ter Tempestad, right b'fore the rope was tied 'round meh neck... _

The girl's tears began to roll down her cheeks, with a small smile of relief from hearing that her friend had not been hung after all. Genkin and Lepido had paid off their debt by rescuing the leader of their crew, and Amelia knew they would come to save her from this punishment in Juvenile Hall.

_...we're all fugitives ter the Tempestad law now, Mel... and fer safety ah can't tell yer the whereabouts of us. Ahr crew got split up after th' sentences came through, an' we're tryin' ter find th' others one by one all o'er the damn Etherium..._

Amelia had no idea where the others had been placed, either, since she had been escorted out of the courtroom before any other punishment was stated. Wormwood... after all that he had done to help her... she could only image what he was up to now.

_Them sentinels arn't makin' er easy, Mel, and th' place they're keepin' yeh is one th' most dangerous places ter get involved wi'..._

Gradually, the smile in Amelia's tearful eyes faded into a frown of disbelief, wondering if she had heard correctly.

_...Ah cannot risk any more o' those sentinels surroundin' th' place ter bloody save yeh, lass... and the places they got our crew are galaxies out of each other._ _Ah don' know how much time it'll take ter find each of ahr crew... but I know by the time we'll have found ever'one, you'll be outter that place as lovely as I first sawr yeh. Ah almost thought ah'd lost ye Mel, and with yer father and the other sentinels surroundin' Tempestad with yer' runnin-off story... ah reckon it's the best way ter end things, fer now. _

"No... Cassio, don't say that. Don't bloody leave me in this place..." Amelia whispered almost in desperation to the little bead in front of her, oblivious that the Miroid could not listen or respond back to her.

_...best o' luck ter yeh, Mel... ah know yeh'l find happiness out there, and ah promise ah'll find yeh again someday... Take care o' yehself, luv._

And with that last word, the light in the Miroid put itself out and blended in with the darkness surrounding Amelia in her little bunk. Her hidden face was scrunched up with anger and sadness as she continued to hold that little bead in her hand, knowing that the voice would not come back to her as much as he held it tightly.

In the back of her mind, even as she had heard Cassio's brave voice in the message, she knew that her friend had followed the pirates' code respectfully. Amelia did not want to admit that her most loyal crew, who had gone through so many adventures in the past few years... had made the best decision to leave her behind. Their decision was not in vain, as it was the pirate's code to leave those who were the most difficult to save, in an attempt to save the others in turmoil.

The homfelin felt so abandoned in that room, feeling as if she had lost so many friends to the galaxies outside of her quarters in Juvenile Hall. With one small sniffle leaving her nose, she had no idea if she would ever see Cassio or the crew again, because of that fate that was brought upon them.

It was the pirates' code that had given them so much trouble in the _Grand Odyssey_, and now it was the Code that made the crew members abandon Amelia for an indefinite amount of time.

As Amelia growled and cried herself back onto the cot of her bunker, still holding the dead Miroid in her hand, the homcanid swore that she would never get involved with pirates again.

The Smollets marked their first visitation to Juvenile Hall exactly one week after Amelia received that sentimental letter from her mother, and Cornelius Arrow almost thought he'd made a mistake counting only fifteen minutes that the couple spent in the small meeting lounge with their daughter. They looked like a couple showing deep pity for a girl who'd asked for money off the streets... rather than gazing at her respectively like a daughter of their high-class household.

Cornelius Arrow saw the young girl lower her head as they left the lounge, her mouth not having opened up for more than a few words of conversation the entire time. The Colonel stormed out of the lounge doors and faced the large pyedrad with so much anger and disappointment across his cat-like face. His wife's silk gloves tried to hold one of his arms back meekly.

"What the _hell _is going on with her, Lieutenant?" the usual positive tone of the Colonel quickly melted away into a flustered one. "You said she was making _progress_ this past year."

"Sir, I meant what I said; she was behaving much better in school... she is getting less demerits... she is cooperating with her training, and her chores..."

"That girl is a _wreck_, lieutenant! She cannot even hold a conversation with her own parents." Hugo Smollet looked over his shoulder back into the lounge, where his daughter's keen ears had flinched from those words, but she still sat with arms crossed.

All of a sudden, the First Lieutenant fell slightly confused. "I beg your pardon, sir?"

"She doesn't smile, she doesn't look straight in the eye at us... she does not even _talk _to us."

"Darling, please, she'll hear you." Winifred whispered and calmed her husband down with a hand on his shoulder, leaning on him slightly. "I think I know what is troubling her... she just needs to get back into old hobbies again... perhaps give her a piano to practice on... she used to love playing the music for us, don't you remember, darling?"

"Madam," the pyedrad was mentally trying to figure out what the Colonel and his wife had in store for their daughter, "would it be conclusive to say that Miss Smollet is still longing for those friends of hers?"

"Are you out of your mind, Arrow?" The Colonel cut in with a slight hiss. "God, if I had the power, I would've killed those bastards_ myself _for ruining my daughter's hopes for a future..."

"Hopes for a future?" Mr. Arrow could not believe what he was hearing, and his stone body all of a sudden fell much more heavy and in place. "Sir, she is still capable of having a wonderful future, I promise you that. She just needs a bit of time to re-evaluate her career goals..."

The glamorous Winifred Smollet could not help but laugh a little, looking back at her daughter, sitting sulkingly in the chair with her ears down, then suddenly gaining a perspective. "She's always had her head in the sky, Lieutenant, always day-dreaming and refusing to listen to me about lady-like mannerisms. She would've been able to have many courtships if this were years ago... but... oh, with those four years she has in the Interstellar Academy... goodness knows it will make her too rough-looking to be a bride. I don't think any man will be attracted to a girl like that."

The First Lieutenant did not even blink at the woman's speech. Could it truly be possible that one of the most respected families in the planet of Tempestad were thinking so lowly about their only daughter... a girl who had merely taken a wrong turn (for better or worse, he didn't know anymore)... and had apparently ruined any chance of having a good future? Or was this all based on a family's certain expectations? Was the Colonel and his wife honestly not thinking past marriage for their daughter's security?

He looked over to the young girl whom he had chaperoned for the past year, who was still gazing down to the ground as if she wanted to melt into it. Instead of seeing a hopeless little girl with a record of crime on her back, Cornelius Arrow knew the strength she had carried in her throughout the entire years... as well as the pain she refused to talk about with anyone.

In his mind, Arrow had already become too involved with the Smollet family to let go of this project, and he was not about to give up on a girl who needed a role model now more than ever.

"Sir, Madam..." the pyedrad looked square into each of the pair's eyes, seeing the disappointment in both of them as he spoke. "I assure you... that by the time your daughter leaves Juvenile Hall for the Naval Academy service, she will be ready for what's ahead of her, and she will hold much more maturity and grace than what you could have possibly imagined."

"Oh Lieutenant, you do not have to do that... I'm sure she can fend for herself the rest of the time she is here, and she can work in the kitchens in the Naval Academy and go unnoticed ... probably not gain so much muscle tone by the time she leaves..."

"Madam, I insist in helping your daughter change her ways, and I will make those years in the Interstellar Naval Academy be more beneficial to her than washing dishes."

The Colonel looked over to the First Lieutenant skeptically, wondering if this was on the line of a greater promotion on his part. His voice came out of an exhausted sense of pity for the pyedrad, as he was going to undergo such a task. "Well, Lieutenant, it is your decision on how you use your best years of naval service. I will notify the Naval Force that you're extending your civic service."

"Thank you, sir. I will appreciate that very much," and the two men shook hands with one another as if equals, the Colonel escorting his wife out of the lounging area and towards the exits of the Juvenile center.

The pyedrad's eyes followed the couple all the way down that small corridor of the visiting area, with a sincere amount of disbelief and discomfort in his frame. He had not realized the magnitude of this responsibility he had just volunteered to dedicate the next few years in, but he turned around to glance at Amelia, and she now stared back at him straight in the eye.

Cornelius Arrow immediately felt that he had made the right choice.


	11. the epiphany near a stairwell

1**Okay, I lied; one last chapter before the film's actual events take place! It's a good one, though! R&R.**

--------------

"Jim, _listen _to me, please... No, you can_NOT_ go space soaring on the Montressor canyons. The Cranes are here helping us with the food... and besides, it's prohibi--... Wha–...?"

A small pause fell across the kitchen, as the guests tried not to hear Sarah's distress in the dim living room doorway.

"Jim I don't care if Ismael's father lets him dive into _active quicksand craters_... you're coming HOME, do you hear —-"

Not even letting Sarah finish her sentence, the glowing glass pyramid that she held on the palm of her hand quickly faded back into its normal transparent state, the hazy image of her son disappearing from it without a warning.

The woman didn't know what had happened at first, but she looked at the Arialfone blankly on her hand, and Delbert could see from her creme-colored look that she hadn't expected her son to hang up like that. Sarah let out a minor growl of frustration from the living room in the Benbow Inn, and the homcanid awkwardly wondered if that was the best time to ask the Cranes and their youngest daughter to leave early, and let the two friends finish unloading the week's groceries themselves.

Sarah rubbed the back of her neck cautiously, before going into the kitchen again to look at the Cranes' vague expressions, as they seemed to have stopped unloading loaves of bread midway. Delbert's spectacles glimmered like a signal to Sarah, and even though he was occupied with helping Joyce carry a heavy eggplantae onto the counter, the woman could feel he had made her feelings a priority.

"Um... Mr. And Mrs. Crane..." Delbert glanced over to the couple, nervously. "I appreciate your helping us with the food, but I'm sure Sarah and I can take it from--"

"No, Delbert, it's... it's fine." Sarah quickened her pace back near the kitchen table, and started taking more loaves of bread out from the paper bags, making an attempt to smile to the Cranes and to Delbert in the same millisecond. "I'm serious guys, you don't have to leave yet. I mean, unless you want to... What time is it?"

The astrophysicist's eyebrows raised themselves skeptically to Sarah, but he pretended to still be interested in carrying that heavy eggplantae that was almost twice the size of Joyce. The girl giggling slightly as she saw Delbert's face turn slightly red with the weight, then placed some of that effort into her lift again.

"Just about nine o'clock, I believe." Mrs. Crane moved a bit of her dark blonde hair and turned towards the antique cuckoo clock near the living room. "We can at least finish unloading the bakery for you."

"Aw, thanks a lot. I promise I'll cook you two a nice omelet brunch in payback for this.." Sarah felt slightly better about her neighbors' generosity, feeling much better that she saved a bit more money not having to hire market assistants to carry the Benbow Inn's food supply this week.

"Joyce, honey? Don't you still have reading homework to finish for tomorrow? Why don't you go do that while Mom and I finish these groceries."

"Aw, Dad but it's not due until Tuesday. Can I just finish it tomorrow?" Her specks of freckles scrunched up together at the base of her nose.

"Honey, I know how much you like getting up early for the sunrise, but that's no excuse; go on."

The little girl crossed her arms, angling her mouth in a mocking frown as her dad patted her head. She seemed to understand him instantly and with a little dimple at the corner of her cheek, Joyce strolled out of the kitchen to get her reading homework. Delbert was amazed to how a child's actions could affect her parents so easily, letting the father feel like he had accomplished another milestone with his parenthood.

And the homcanid could see in Sarah's face that her son's own sense of rebellion was beginning to affect her in a very disheartening way.

Delbert picked up the massive eggplantae, concluding in his mind that children were nothing but little amusing power-hungry critters... and as he looked through his spectacles to see the girl walking slowly to the living room, he noticed that Joyce carried a slight limp on her walk. It happened every time she moved her left leg, and the Doctor eyed over towards the girl's parents where they did not seem to be concerned by it at all.

"Joyce, be sure to check the electromagnetic density of your leg. It's Sunday, remember?"

"Yeah, mom, I know." The girl replied in a slight tone of boredom, turning back at her mother to smile and mean well.

A small drift of silence passed through the room, as Sarah and Delbert began cutting up the eggplantae on the counter, with the Cranes storing a week's amount of pastries and bread in the large pantry in the kitchen. Sarah had glanced over to the Doctor twice, as if mentally telling him how upset she was about Jim's behavior lately, but refusing to talk about it. Or even acknowledge it.

Delbert had luckily mastered the art of taming awkward silence.

"Sarah, you've brought probably enough bread to feed the entire Interstellar Army regiment. How many residents are you expecting to come this week?"

"Oh this bread actually lasts a lot longer... probably for three weeks. It's good, because that way I won't have to make repeated trips to the market, and I'll be saving up more time, energy, and money..."

"Always thinking ahead, Sarah, as per usual." Delbert gave his weak attempt of humor, knowing enough of the overwhelming management pool she had fallen into, ever since Jonathan had given up the project. With the faint accounting skills he had acquired, Delbert would visit the Inn regularly and do all the book-keeping, but it was Sarah who practically did everything else. The two friends had both agreed that planning for numerous weeks' residents and numbers would be much more beneficial financially than just sitting around and hoping for the best.

Those past two years had been the worst for them; not really by numbers, but because their friendship had turned into more of an awkward business relationship than one involving very dry jokes. It was ironic, too, because after that dreadful morning of tears and sheer hatred for the elements of romance, Sarah had only thought of Delbert to contact as a sense of comfort. The loyal homcanid had put off all of his paperwork about the latest galactic spotting of the _Arachni Borealis _in order to be at his friend's side for an entire afternoon.

Delbert recalled sitting with Sarah there in the kitchen that day, her long hair sloppily undone, her hands holding a mug of echinacea "Sunshine" tea in order to calm her senses. A cup of tea had soothed the Doctor's sadness whenever his cousin's voice ran through his mind, and so it seemed natural to do the same for a friend. That one afternoon, Sarah seemed to be more at peace with the Etherium around her, not being afraid to tell Delbert about the most unimportant fragments of her and Jonathan's relationship. He even remembered her laughing once or twice during her talk, and her tear-struck eyes that made the blue tint glimmer even more than usual.

And Delbert would never forget seeing young Jim with those same tragically blue eyes as he walked through the kitchen door, returning to the house after what seemed an entire morning spent overlooking a rickety dock with broken dreams. That look of sadness... confusion that spread across Jim's little face then, seeing the lanky homcanid's hand comforting his distressed mother... was one that marked the young boy with an anger that grew like a third tonsil.

Jim stared at the two people in the kitchen, his jaw almost falling in a manner of disbelief and betrayal. His eyes quickly seemed turn from sadness into an unwanted anger, and his voice cracked nervously as he said, "N--... n--no...no!"

Sarah's eyes blinked out a new set of tears, and she instantly saw the picture that Jim was seeing in his mind, with Delbert right there next to her, about to comfort her hands... and she immediately sat herself straight on the chair.

"Oh, no Jim... Jim, honey.."

The boy's unsteady breathing built up more and more, and the kid frowned over at Delbert's direction, trying to look at the doctor squarely in the eye to say... "_g–...get out_."

"No, Jim it's okay... Delbert is... he's just --"

"I want him to GET OUT!" The boy's eyes were beginning to elucidate tears of their own.

"_JIM..._" Sarah's soft voice mustered that authoritative tone once again, but the little boy stood there, in silence, breathing rapidly with rage. And before Sarah could place the next words to say, the young boy ran straight to the upstairs to slam a door violently shut.

Watching the two of them almost be battling with each other's feeling mentally, Delbert all of a sudden felt very out of place, and even with two years into the bitterness of Jonathan's leaving, the Doctor already felt that a friendship with Jim Hawkins was permanently out of the question.

Seeing how the boy would much rather stay out and break Montressor laws of curfew than spend time with his mother and acquaintances brought a slight strain to the Doctor, and he wished there was something he could do to make Sarah's life be more like the Crane family.

"Hey dear, I'm going to call Connie and make sure she's home soon..." Mrs. Crane made a nodding gesture over to the living room as well, moving over to the dining table to take out a small pyramid of her own. "That Travis boy can get carried away sometimes... especially with curfews..."

"Alright, tell her we won't be much longer here at the Inn," Mr. Crane added, and his wife smiled as she went the other direction and activated the Arialfone on her hand near the main entrance to the Inn. She seemed to wish for more privacy between a conversation with her girl.

It did not take a brilliant mathematician or astrophysicist to see how much the glimmer in Sarah's eyes was heeding out of the kitchen, away from the bags of grocery food, and over to a conversation in the living she had nothing to deal with. It was a relationship that she

-----

Galaxies away, many years and moments before this one, and young rebellious woman was glancing over at the Lieutenant who had brought her into so much trouble, hating him with all of the fur on her skin. She stared at him nearly an inch away from inner breakpoint, tears swelling in her eyes, remembering that bitter dialogue that was exchanged with her own parents... all concerning their daughter... but she would not let herself fall into that pit of despair.

Amelia Smollet stood up from the seat in the visiting room, her emerald green eyes refusing to look at the guard as his tentacles flinched, and politely asked to be excused back into her own quarters. Without a moment's notice she then proceeded to storm through the office doors and intended to not look at Mr. Arrow as she did so.

The girl was determined to run again, despite how unlucky those actions had previously been for her. It seemed like a chain reaction how one thought led to another in those small milliseconds that came over her, as she stormed out to the dim hallway.

_One more year in this filthy place... if I don't speak at all, they will probably let me out earlier. _

_Six months. I'll plan for six months... not a single word, not a sound... doing those drills with extra stamina and speed. I'll gain back that agility that I used to steal so many weapons for Cassio off of merchant ships. I'll become a passive little mute in everyone's eyes... those ridiculous board members will not have a choice but to feel sorry for me... they don't follow all delinquent records meticulously... they'll _have _to let me go. _

_And when I do, I'll show them. Six months, and I will leave Juvenile Hall on a third-class metal fleet ship heading towards that Interstellar Naval Academy. The moment they escort me into that ship for a long voyage, I'll slip through their fingers. I'll drop kick and tumble to the lifeglider ports through the old vents. I'll rip through those robotic chords so no one will catch me. I'll open the cargo bay and wire the lifeglider... I've sped through Etherium mist in lifegliders... I don't need Cassio to start one up on my own..._

"How will you manage it?"

That familiar grim, almost concrete-like voice pierced the girl's sensitive ears from a short distance, in a tone that did not seem threatening, but rather curious. Amelia didn't care about the tone, nor the supposed intentions behind it. All that she cared about were the tears finally releasing themselves from her eyes.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Amelia howled without even turning her head to see the pyedrad's face, and a few guardsmen along the hallway approached to handle the situation with extreme caution. The homfelin picked up the walking pace back to her quarters, eventually forming into a run before the tears would be sobbing out of her seemingly entire frame.

She found herself sprinting to the nearest emergency stairwell of the juvenile quarters, leaving the guards to watch that girl chase the remnants of her shadow... not being a real case for them at all. Amelia heard her own cries echo down the metal staircases, looking at the many possible surveillance gadgets watching her every move... the young woman felt like the most foolish woman in the world.

_What the hell was he getting at? What did _he_ know? _Amelia asked herself, the small beads of tears drying themselves at the rim of her feline jawline.

She purred involuntarily, hugging her legs as a method of warmth and comfort that she could not find anywhere else. It was the only way she could keep her mind and her thoughts together.As the emptiness of the cold staircase brought her much more of that dreadful lonely reality, Amelia closed her claws into a tight grip and face that future that was ahead of her. Slowly, she opened the staircase door to face the next six months of her plan.

"You're worthless, Miss Smollet."

Amelia winced and turned to her right, almost expecting that pyedrad to have followed her anyway. She frowned.

"What did you say to me?" The girl was not about to show tears again.

"That is what they're telling you, isn't it?" Mr. Arrow disclosed those facts to the girl as if her were talking business, but he felt those words striking the girl's painful memory. "Both of your parents believe that you will amount to nothing."

"I don't care." Amelia stared at that calm pyedrad with the massive torso as if he were a lifeless brick wall, unwilling to look him in the eye."And I already told you to _leave me alone_."

"How are you going to manage it?" Mr. Arrow tossed that question again to her like a light feather that passed in midair.

"Manage _what?_" The woman was flustered, refusing to believe that this pyedrad was capable of feeling anything that was working inside her mind.

"The reputation of being worthless... it seems like a terrible burden to pick on."

"I don't need to prove anything to them; the Colonel brought this reject upon himself." Amelia gestured her arms flamboyantly over her frame, like a very exaggerated curtsy. "I will be on my own now... I'll find my _own_ ways..."

"Oh will you?" Mr. Arrow seemed to have found the subject he was looking for, and the tone of his voice fell with sincere interest. Amelia couldn't believe she was still standing there, talking to this bloke. "Tell me; how exactly do you expect to prove to _yourself_ that you are capable of anything, with the criminal background you've had? I am just curious."

"_Shut up._" Amelia could not stand the sincerity of Mr. Arrow's tone, how he was bringing back those days of piracy she had enjoyed and despised almost simultaneously. "I hope you realize that those men were my friends. They taught me _more _than--"

"More than running away from the law, concealing your identity as a thief, or placing innocent civilians close to their deaths... all due to getting a day's wages? Is this what you believe in?"

"What do you believe in, Miss Smollet?"

Amelia looked at her hands, seeing how mortal this conversation was becoming to her, slowly releasing the grip from her claws, and knowing that Cassio and the others were somewhere out in the galaxy risking their own lives for survival.

"Loyalty." The word crawled out of the woman's small mouth, as soft as a whisper.

"I see... and when you joined those men... did you expect a real friendship among criminals?"

Amelia narrowed her emerald eyes up at the man. "They would have fought for me."

"They would have laughed half-drunkenly with you, called you a pretty face, and left you out in the torn edges of space in the first instant they could not save you, Madam." For the woman, it was almost amusing to see this bulky man grin at himself with certainty over something he did not know anything about.

"Yes, I know that." Amelia bit the edge of her lip, and breathed the next sentence. "But they were my friends."

Nothing this bulky, husky-voiced pyedrad said was ever going to change that.

Mr. Arrow raised an eyebrow over to the young woman, as someone he had barely known throughout the entire year he was at service to the family, and wondered how much of a stranger she truly was to him. He knew she was old enough to figure things out herself, and know how pirates were regarded as criminals in heart and soul, and yet that determination she held as warrior among thieves was something that never left Amelia Smollet.

"Well... do you plan on joining them again?"

Amelia, staring up at the man's dark, perplexed eyes, was unsure how to react at a questions like that. She did not know if he was asking about her plans to escape at some point during her final year of Juvenile Hall, or if she legitimately was going to serve her time, and eventually... find herself amongst thieves again. The truth was... Amelia did not know that answer... nor did she want to wait and see if her friends would rescue her from misery or despair.

She was not a damsel in distress.

All of a sudden, the young homfelin's eyes glistened with new tears, but without any sorrow behind them. It was an idea that was quickly taking over every fiber of her fur, and the adventures behind it were taking remarkable images in her mind. Amelia's thoughts had given up piracy long when she had received that Miroid and Cassio's message behind it, and yet her desire to be a part of those adventures towards the unknown still lurked inside her very being. She saw the history that was surrounding great battles between the Procyon Armanda and the Inglaterr Galaxy, and the scurrying edges of it that came dangerously with the likes of pirates.

Amelia saw the red-tinted uniform that the pyedrad wore humbly in his frame, and that sat perfectly on his head... and Amelia knew exactly what was next for her.

"No, Mr.Arrow, I don't." the girl's voice was firm, and already grown to a tone of maturity and ease. "I'm going to become a sentinel."

She was going to rescue her rescuers.

It was when Amelia decided to use the Interstellar Academy service to her full advantage, when realizing that in time she would be able to navigate her own ship, manage her own fleet, and voyage the many galaxies around her... in the hope to someday find her friends again.

Mr. Arrow breathed into a comfortable smile, more at ease than he ever was before the conversation had started. The project whom he had sworn into was already beginning to take shape. She would prove to herself that she was worth every single star in the Etherium.


	12. the launch of the Legacy

"Treasure... Planet."

Jim stared at the neon green orb, circled by two elliptical rings that could only symbolize riches upon riches for the young boy. His eyes remained mesmerized at the glowing planet as it rotated in its digital in thin air, the other map points suddenly becoming secondary to him.

"What?"

Dr. Doppler looked at the boy, mostly in an awestruck, reassuring way. He needed to hear the name of that myth from someone else in order to establish the fact that this wasn't a dream. That this room-wide digitally-enhanced map was something more than a very cosmological, scientifically-driven joke.

"That's Treasure _Planet!_" Jim's eyes instantly widened back into the one's he'd practically left behind as a boy, where anything seemed possible and the universe was only a net of stars waiting to be claimed.

"Flint's Trove? The... the _Loot of a Thousand Worlds_?"

Doppler was trying really hard to remember that old story book he had once owned. The same one that he had given to Sarah, and admiring the fact that she had passed the story lovingly on to her own son.

"Do you know what this _means!_?"

The astrophysicist couldn't contain his excitement, as his young, adventuresome age slowly rekindled in him for the better. Doppler could sense the warm laughter of his cousin Daisy run through his ears, the memories of their mischief all returning to him by the sole green light of a digital destination.

"It means... that all that treasure is only a _boat ride away_..." Jim Hawkins could feel his ambitious wheels turning as he answered the Doctor's cumbersome question. Only a boat ride away... and all of their problems would be solved. Of course, the boy knew it would be a tad more complex with the planning, but he didn't care.

Treasure Planet existed. All those nights of storytelling... all that daydreaming of soaring through the Etherium... were about to send the boy to the greatest adventure of his life.

Doppler felt his muscles trembling at the thought of exploration. It was something he had practically stored into the bookshelves along with all of his outdated research... and yet... in one small instant, those memories of Daisy had returned to him. He remembered the promise he had given to her, even before he had discovered her illness.

Delbert Doppler would finally go on an adventure, and it would bring him one of the greatest recognitions that universal explorers would ever see, time and again. He could almost taste glory, trying to reach up to touch the green digital planet hovering above him.

But then Jim closed the spherical map.

Sarah Hawkins stayed far from these two apparent lunatics near the bookshelf of Doppler's vast study, taking everything in more slowly... wondering if that digital web of green patterns were dangerous to the optic eye if looked at for too long. Clearly, she was missing some catalyst to the enthusiasm, or perhaps she was still recovering from the gargantuan loss that she'd felt from the unexpected raid of the Benbow Inn... just a few hours before. Her heart just wasn't ready for anything new, especially if it involved strange digital artifacts.

In spite of her current heartache, the woman noticed the green orb with the two rings in that distance, almost experiencing a deja vu phase when her son restated that silly storybook title. She was lost for words at how such a mythical planet would all of a sudden become the center of her boy's attention.

"...All my life I've been waiting for an opportunity like this, and here it is, _screaming!_" The excitement-driven doctor exclaimed as he slid down from his hill of books, holding a toothbrush.

Sarah tried to fight off the massive migraine that was brewing between her temples, while her best friend did not seem to help it with all the "_Go Delbert! Go Delbert_!"s he jingled happily from his mind.

The woman groaned in frustration, composing a stop to all of this madness with the flatness of her voice. "Alright, that's it. You're _both grounded."_

"What?" Jim could not believe that his mother, the storyteller of his youth, had not caught the excitement yet. "Mom, this is it... Treasure Planet! Don't you remember? All those stories--"

"–that's all they were, Jim. _Stories!_" Sarah finished, with a tone of exhaustion, but Jim did not seem to give that hopeful gleam in his eyes. Doppler scratched his head in the background, wondering if his goofy dancing had been a little too much for this grief-stricken woman.

"Mom... with that treasure, we can re-build the Benbow Inn a _hundred _times over."

"Yes!" Delbert exclaimed encouragingly, attempting to speak for Sarah's inner enthusiasm.

He started to pace around the library, thinking to himself out loud, while both Jim and his mother watched amusingly. "Yes... all we really need is a ship to get us there... a stable one, with a well-abled crew that knows the galaxy from the inner-core outwards... _Oh! _And I can finally buy myself a SPACESUIT!"

"Delbert, please, calm down." Sarah went over to him once she noticed him getting all red in the face with energy and anticipation for the nonsense. "This is the most absurd thing I've ever... you can't really be serious about _flying _out there... with just that crazy little map telling you were to go?"

Sarah glanced over to Jim then, still getting a hold of an ecstatic Delbert with her hands. "Jim, I won't let you do this..."

"_Mom..._" Jim suddenly felt the harshness of his voice get away with him, and that deep hurt it was giving his mother to see him this way. He knew what kind of a rebel he was turning into... and for once, for the sake of that trust he had with his mother... he controlled it.

The boy sighed, took a deep breath, and started over.

"Mom, listen to me... I know I've put you into a lot of trouble lately... but you _have_ to trust me with this. Treasure Planet exists! It's the answer to all our problems, and I have to go search for it."

Sarah fought the tears that were building up in her eyes, as she saw how her boy was standing up for himself with that edge for adventure, and heroic efforts. It was like he was forming his destiny through a outrageous destination, and the woman was just not ready for this.

"Jim, I--" the young, frail woman felt her words choke inside her throat, before releasing themselves with an overwhelming truth, and a couple of tears from her blue-green eyes.

"I don't want to lose you." She admitted sadly, taking a hold of Jim's shoulder like she was clasping that last bit of her little boy before he faded away.

In the end, Jim looked at his mother with the promising gaze of a grown-up, smiling. "You won't lose me, Mom. I'll make you proud. You'll see."

The mother and son hugged each other peacefully, like they're relationship had rekindled itself from the dusty old books in Delbert's library.

"He'll be alright, Sarah," Delbert added from the side. "Don't worry, I'm make sure this young lad doesn't get into any more trouble than I can help!"

Sarah stared at the man skeptically, but with a sincere grin that said '_alright, but one scratch on my boy... and you're puppy chow.'_

Delbert promptly clapped his hands as if to commence a new project. "Well! We certainly have a lot to plan out within the next few days, don't we? Jim... we're off to the SPACE PORT!"

_-------------------------------------_

The young homfelin took a firm stance as she overlooked the magnificent ship from her Crow's Nest, breathing in a long and wonderful sight that had taken so many years to accomplish.

She was so close to finding them. She could feel it, as the determined ambition to reunite with her friends flowed through her veins and surpassed the colorful medals that hung on one of the shoulder pads of her uniform.

Her last achievement did not win her a medal, but instead, the title and the opportunity to explore the vast reaches of the Etherium without anyone possibly suspecting her of her true motive. She was finally a Captain of a grand (albeit second-hand) ship called the _RLS Legacy_ that would take her to the Asygnas Cross, the Coral Galaxy, the Mecillanic Clouds of Dust... places where she would surely find Genkin, Lepido...Wormwood, perhaps?... and Cassio?...

It had been nearly ten years since his Miroid message had found itself into her Juvenile Hall chamber, and for almost every single night, she held onto that tiny little bead tied with string around her neck. She stroked it with the memories of her friends and the adventures, hoping that a new day would bring her closer to them.

Her hair was no longer long and wavy, but instead had been cut short and sleeked at the back... in the most respectful manner for a leading lady. It was something new to her, as she missed how the wind usually brushed through her strands peacefully, but it was a suggestion from Mr. Arrow. He had sailed for many years throughout galaxies, and quite often were men taken from a young woman's hair and beauty to actually take _in _anything that was commanded from them. At least in Amelia's case, her hair could easily be parted with.

As she watched the seagullin rays soar in unison through the light blue atmosphere, Amelia could hardly wait to get the _RLS_ _Legacy_ to Ethereal sea and begin this ridiculous journey that involved the decoding of an ancient map to a planet of treasure, of some sort.

_Always treasure, isn't it?..._she thought, knowing that the drills and the discipline from the Royal Naval Academy had made those years of piracy grow far behind her. Mr. Arrow seemed to be aware of that as well, watching the young woman's every move as if he were more of a guardian to her than a mentor, all the way though her graduation ceremony at the Academy.

The woman smirked through her emerald green eyes, as the bulky man of stone stood his ground on the deck below her, bellowing out to the newly-hired crew that neither he nor she would've considered hiring next to a group of seagullen rays.

Amelia admitted it, Mr. Arrow was not all that horrible of a man. In fact, he had taken better care of her throughout all of her training... with the yelling and all that bitter work... than she could ever remember with anything involving affection from her parents. They still managed to write to her several times every year, and Amelia, in spite of her change of character... only wrote to them once. When she graduated the Academy.

_To the Colonel Hugo Smollet and his wife,_ _Winifred Aurelia,_

_I am writing to you as I finally pack up my bunker at the Royal Naval Academy and depart for my first professional mission as a cadet to the Inglaterr Navy, working under siege for the current protocol against the Procyon Armada. There is no reason to express apologies for not presenting yourselves at my graduation this evening... as I'm sure you were both terribly __busy celebrating the birth of your second grandchild by Raul. _

_Please give him and his wife my blessings, and to my new nephew, may he be another bright little addition to the new Smollet generation. I am not writing to you to express the sadness, or the grief, or the absolute disappointment that you both have bestowed upon me as a failed daughter... because I have long accepted the fact that I would have to change my own __identity before I could manage to become what you long expected of me. And to be frank, your disbeliefs me did not prove to make that inconceivable task worthwhile._

_No... I am writing because for so many years, I have acknowledged the fact that our relationship has dwindled into bitterness and delusion, and perhaps the chances we had to finally become a beautiful family had long been passed on. If you claim that it was because of my doing, I will accept it with full dignity of not writing you all this time. But if you claim that deep within your heart it was because of my refusal to follow the old rules of Smollet nobility and its misogynistic tendencies (forgive me, mother)... then this is the last that you will hear of me._

_I am exceedingly grateful for the fate that was given to me by the presence of First Lieutenant Cornelius Arrow, who had watched over me throughout my entire ordeals at the Academy and saw more to me than perhaps you both could have ever seen in that small conference room many years ago._

_All I ask is that you look at this letter with nothing but sincerity and pride, Colonel, because you have a daughter who managed to train at your Alma Mater and successfully complete the Academy in the same way your other sons had done for you. The difference is... your daughter did it for no one but herself. Perhaps this will not be enough for you to accept me as a Smollet... but I have greatly accepted myself as being a strong one, from which I have become exceptionally content. I honestly hope that you will learn to see me differently from now on._

_Best regards, and all my affectionate love,_

_First Mate Amelia Smollet_

"...CAPTAIN!"

Amelia blinked and quickly absorbed the bellowing voice of Mr. Arrow once again from high up in the Crow's Nest. It seemed that there was an unfortunate announcement coming her way.

"Yes, Mr. Arrow? Is there a problem?" She yelled promptly back at him, holding a hand over her eyes for shade.

"None, ma'am. But I believe our patron of this expedition is on his way aboard."

Amelia looked out to the loading dock as Mr. Arrow pointed this out to her, and as she squinted her eyes, she noticed the faint figures of a sulky young boy and the comical clumsiness of a man in an unnecessary yellow spacesuit.

The woman groaned softly. It was worse than she thought... but nevertheless, it was time to make good appearances to the ones who were funding this elaborate journey across the Etherium.

"I'm on it, Mr. Arrow. Give me just a few moments," she said loudly down to the bulky man, and he nodded with a respectful gesture to greet the incoming guests.

Amelia grabbed a hold of the climbing rope that had brought her up to the Nest as way of bringing herself down... but at that very moment... something occurred to her that made her eyes beam with unbelievable excitement.

It was the realization that she indeed was, for the very first time in her naval career... commanding a magnificent ship of her own. Her heart began to beat rhythmically with excitement, envisioning the _Legacy _as more than just a ship with wood and sails.

For the young Captain, the_ RLS_ _Legacy_ suddenly became like her playground.

Quickly remembering a few acrobatic tricks from those wonderful recesses at the Academy, she instantly formed a fun and mesmerizing entrance for her to make as the leader of the _Legacy..._ and with a small breath and the clicking of her thigh-high boots... Captain Amelia Smollet's adventure began.


	13. the stubbornness of a Captain

1The rush of shock from her injury had made Amelia temporarily dizzy to quick movement, and she could barely shake her head for "_no!_" as the Homcanid asked her to let him examine the wound.

Goodness knows she was stubborn.

Part of him was still recovering from that miraculous landing she had managed to pull onto the swamp forest of Treasure Planet, but with the lifeglider no longer air-worthy, and the pirates without at doubt on their tail, Doppler refused to believe that his adventure would end with him bickering with a ferocious-looking feline.

"Captain," he maintained that respect with her title, afraid she would throttle him with her good arm if he didn't... "it might make a churn--_turn– _turn for the worst, I'm afraid, if you don't let me see the injury now."

Delbert felt his voice instantly become more assertive as Jim and Morph had left to investigate the planet's grounds. He was actually glad Jim had gone elsewhere, because he probably would've started bursting into laughter, seeing his looney astronomer friend turn serious in a matter of seconds.

"Just... close your eyes, and think of something... oh I don't know, _thrilling_."

The feline scoffed, trying to keep her professionalism painless as the Doctor helped to remove her coat. After wiping his spectacles clean with a handkerchief, Delbert placed them back on, and leaned a bit closer to Amelia's wounded blouse. The astronomer tried not to cringe at the sight, but there were traces of blood underneath the blouse, but knew they must've been from skin burns after the flare blast.

"Doctor, I tell you it is _nothing_. If I were bleeding in serious condition, I would be in shock by now--"

"I know that, Captain, but please try to relax." Delbert remained calm, knowing that it was the injury talking more now than the Captain herself. Still, he was a bit nervous handling this no-nonsense feline while being injured. "Now I'm...I'm going to trace my finger along the back side of your rib cage, alright? To check for anything broken."

Amelia just sighed and didn't look at him, which the Doctor signified to be a 'yes.'

Taking a small breath of confidence, Delbert began to examine the left side of Amelia's back torso, being as careful as possible with his index finger he used to slide along each rib one at a time, attempting to note cracks without encouraging internal bleeding. As he passed along the fourth rib, he felt a certain dent, and Amelia bit her lips and tightened her stomach involuntarily.

Delbert looked to the ground.

He didn't have to be a medical professional to classify fractured ribs, but he couldn't possibly perceive how serious it was... and it was clearly hurting Amelia more than she made it known. Delbert glanced at her eyes as she shut them tightly from the sudden burst of pain, and couldn't believe how resistant this woman was to it. Next to her, the Homcanid felt like a child dying over a toothache.

"I think the best we can do for the moment is to leave the rib alone, Captain, and not let your right arm touch it." Delbert moved back a little bit and stated to overlook their surroundings, scratching his scalp. "Now, obviously we don't have bandages or anything, but maybe... I can rip off one of those giant leaves..."

"That won't be necessary, Doctor." Amelia replied with a bit of grief, but flatly. "The fabric should be strong enough."

"Oh... alright." Delbert gulped down his professionalism silently. "Just... hold on to the shoulder stitch, and I'll do the rest." The dog rubbed his hands together to make himself ready, as Amelia positioned her right hand over her chest and grabbed the blouse tightly. She nodded for assurance, and Delbert grabbed Amelia's sleeve and ripped it off in one quick motion. Delbert grinned slightly after his accomplishment, then measuring out the blouse into two identically long pieces to hold Amelia's arm.

"It is quite ironic, Doctor, don't you think?" The Captain began to say, as the Doctor worked the healing process. "You certainly cannot keep your mouth shut during a panic, and yet, you stay calm in the most serious, stressful situations."

Delbert arched an eyebrow at that, looking up to see that Amelia had finally managed to return a gaze at him with curiosity. She was right, of course, as he'd recalled that horrible experience with the black hole, and how he'd managed to find a solution to it. Delbert couldn't help but give a small laugh and continue with his work tying the bandage, becoming more at ease.

"It sounds like something Daisy would say to me..." he mumbled, but it didn't stop his hands from shaking a little with adjusting the bandage.

"Daisy?" Amelia caught that name with a faint amount of affection by the Doctor.

"Yep." Delbert carefully finished the bandage on Amelia's arm, and he noticed how her eyes kept looking at him, somewhat unsatisfied with that short reply. "She...she was my cousin..."

The man couldn't bare to have a staring contest with this woman, and he lifted his knees up to sit on the damaged lifeglider, looking out into the swamp trees with Amelia sitting a level below him. He did not want to talk about Daisy anymore. He wanted Jim and Morph to approach within the trees and say they'd found shelter, and have that certain sadness go away and make things look more hopeful. He did not want to start shedding tears again about his greatest loss.

He did not want to talk about Daisy anymore, but still, the memories kept coming.

"What was she like?" Amelia angled her mouth at what seemed like a pursing of the lips, which she often did to show intrigue.

In her mind she believed this was a story about loss, and as much as she wanted to run away from it, Mr. Arrow's death was still raw to her.

Those memories of him played inside her mind like the appearance of little specs of dust in the air, and she wondered if another story would help her forget him, in a way. If the Academy trained their cadets to feel absolutely nothing by the end of their first mission, why was the death of a colleague so difficult for her to let go of?

The Captain looked up over her shoulder to Delbert for some assurance that he'd heard her question, but he kept his eyes on the distant forest. Clearly, it seemed that silence would be the best he could do for now.

Delbert gave a sigh that made his shoulders slouch down even further. He wanted to avoid the silence, and it reminded him even more of his cousin. "She, um... had this instinct of finding the good things about people, I guess." Delbert saw the Captain's coat still on the ground from when he removed it, and managed to pick it up again and place it gently over her body like a blanket. Amelia didn't seem to mind.

"...she was a wonderful artist." Delbert wandered through his thoughts, recollecting the goodness of his memories for Amelia to hear.

"I remember once, I tore one of her drawings up when we were kids. At first, I thought it was my clever way of getting back at her insults... and... well she didn't say anything. Daisy was so heartbroken, she didn't speak to me for a week... she loved those things the same way I felt about old books. Heh, and to apologize, I drew a picture of her and me sailing a pirate ship... and we both agreed I was a terrible artist, and moved on."

The Doctor didn't know why it was so strange talking about his cousin so suddenly. As he lowered himself to sit down at level with Amelia, he brain-stormed his memory and forced himself to say all that he could feel. Perhaps it was strange, because he had never talked about his memories of Daisy with anyone else since she died. Not even Sarah.

"I would have given anything to have a playmate like that." Amelia broke her eye contact with the Doctor by addressing her wound now and then with a brief tug of her coat. "Somehow I didn't trust friendship, because I felt it was all one big competition. My life revolved around my brothers... I always believed myself to be a burden because I was the girl of the family."

"But... what about your--?"

"Please, my mother was practically a mute in our family." The woman moved herself over for a more comfortable position. "She couldn't stand up for herself to save her life, and incidently, she much rather enjoyed the jewels and the flim-flammery of it all. I went to the Academy telling myself I would never be like her."

Amelia failed to mention that it was the reason she refused to fall into the entrapments of a lady of prestige. She had wanted to leave that burden of good breeding, and to do that, she let go of the memories of her patriarchal father, her invisible mother, her prized brothers... her family.

"So what happened to Daisy?" She asked, struggling to change the subject. "Did she leave Inglaterr for work abroad?"

Delbert smiled to himself a little at that ridiculous idea, but with sadness. Work abroad... oh, Daisy never became the traveling sort... she would've returned to Montressor after one electronic malfunction of a ship and never sail again. But through the... unfortunate experiences... he didn't blame her. As he regained himself to answer the question properly, Delbert tried to find the best words to sum up how she left, with extreme difficulty.

"My cousin... she... she got very sick..." Delbert crunched his stomach, forcing those feelings to come out of his system. "She always made me laugh, but then she stopped drawing. That's when I knew she didn't have very long..."

Daisy was quite a character, he recalled in his mind, even with baggy eyes in a hospital bed in the Montressor Hospital clinic, where the neurology division refused to let her walk in the hallways.

After that unexpected faint in the Doppler Manor, Delbert made it sure that Daisy not leave the hospital clinic until she felt better, and that the diagnosis was clear. He visited her every day for almost a week, despite her constant pleas to get return to his work on her architecture projects and how far behind she'd be if she let the time pass.

The doctors never found a cure to her condition, as if the medical charts only noticed a slight increase of iron in her blood, and a constant record of headaches that couldn't prove anything about a serious illness. Her heart beats were regular, but her blood pressure was below the norm, and yet the medical clinic could not seem to find a connection to it all.

"I wish it could've been that peaceful with Mr. Arrow," Amelia began to say, feeling that she was forcing the doctor to bring back painful memories. "Could you believe that I'd known that man since my first day at the Academy? He had a great future ahead of him... we were going see that happen... and I was not ready for this..."

Delbert handed her a handkerchief out of impulse.

"Oh it's useless, Doctor," the woman made a small unintentional laugh, which the doctor caught sweetly. "I haven't cried since fresh out of my first year at the Naval Force."

"Sorry..." he replaced the handkerchief and started looking out into the abyss behind the lifeboat ship.

His paternal instincts were kicking in, wondering where Jim and Morph had run off to for so long in the woods... and as he recalled Sarah saying something along the lines of _killing _him if a scratch were marked on her son... he attempted to hide that alarming look from Amelia.

"Captain, may I ask a question?" He kept staring out to see any sign of Jim. "Why didn't you let Jim shadow you as an assistant or something? I think it would've boosted his excitement for this trip on the _Legacy_, besides finding the treasure... sometimes I feel that young man needs to find a better direction."

"That_ boy _needs discipline, Doctor." Amelia replied flatly. "First and foremost. I knew it from the moment I met his slouching figure and unmeeting eyes, that he was on the straight way to becoming a rogue."

"Oh trust me, he already _is _enough of a rogue for his mother." Delbert moved a hand behind his neck to massage the strain he felt with this uncomfortable topic. "But you should give the boy something to look forward to, or something that might motivate his interests... I can't understand how peeling potatoes would make any young man want to go on a treasure hunt expedition."

"You give a child the _labor_ and the _work_ that comes with running a ship, and it builds him character. That boy will know just exactly what it takes to get to the top, and there's no skipping ladders in this game."

Amelia's hands had curled into fists as she had spoken up then, and Delbert could see that she was passionate about this topic. His eyes turned back over to the lovely woman, fighting that dreamlike gaze that came so easily whenever he saw her eyes, and he continued to listen.

"I was impatient at that age, Doctor...I remember wanting that glory of a _title_, do you understand?" Her voice was not fierce, nor brutal as she spoke to the man, but rather she was trying to make a point to him. She wanted him to know where she had come from. "I was a girl in a family of young cadets and honorable men... and my mother (God bless her) said that I would be finished as a lady. In my mind, I would be something treated no differently than a medal on a man's uniform, so to speak."

"I'm sorry they made you go through that," Delbert attempted to console to her, but in the back of him mind, he felt really foolish. He wanted to say something along the lines of how lucky she was to have parents, growing up... but he knew that her story would not fit his ideal image. Doppler did not judge her as a troubled mind, but instead saw her as a woman who had been through so much.

He could not help but look at her with fascination as she continued to speak.

"I felt sorry for my mother at first, so I went with what she had for me. But... deep down I already knew I wanted to have that honorable spirit my brothers carried with them, but nobody respected me. Not even my father... and so I got frustrated, wanting to create my _own_ rules... and I nearly became a pirate myself..."

"Ah," Delbert realized out loud, with smile, "so that's why you hate them so much."

"God... those years are far behind me now, it seems," Amelia managed to smile from all those memories that left her. Delbert greatly took in that smile of hers, serenely. "You cannot be rebellious forever, Doctor, unless it means trouble. And I did not want that for my life."

"So you changed routes, then?"

"Indeed," the woman said with a sigh. "Now look at me."

Her statement seemed open-ended through her voice, as if she were holding on to that last word for Delbert to finish her thought. Amelia gazed at the man in front of her with interest, noting how his lovely dark eyes were studying her face silently, like a cloud of stars.

It reminded her of that fascination he'd drawn from the _Orcus Galacticus _– the galactic whale – right before it had decided to sneeze sticky mucus onto him. Amelia giggled in her mind.

No, she thought, she would not be that cruel to the Doctor.

Barely seconds later, as the two of them shared a moment of unspoken bliss, Delbert's canine ears caught the sound of Jim's voice approaching, calling out to him... and their stranded situation was all of a sudden shoved back into reality.


End file.
